JD Vance let slip a fascinating insight into Donald Trump’s chain of command while discussing Nicolas Maduro’s capture in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
The Vice President was grilled on his whereabouts in the early hours of January 3 as US special forces descended on Caracas in the most audacious military operation in Latin America in decades.
Vance was the subject of frenzied speculation in the aftermath as photos beamed out by the White House showed Donald Trump with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe in the Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago.
But Vance told the Mail he was out socializing when Rubio called to tell him that Trump had given the go-ahead for Operation Absolute Resolve.
‘I was in a van, in a mobile Situation Room about 20 miles away from Mar-a-Lago,’ the Vice President said. ‘I was actually with some friends, and Marco called me probably around 10.30pm and said, “This is going to happen tonight.”‘
Vance dismissed rumors about his lack of involvement, telling the Mail: ‘I expected it was going to happen that night … the plan was originally for me to go in.’
The Vice President said he and Rubio discussed whether it ‘made sense’ for him to make the journey to the President’s Palm Beach club, but decided it could jeopardize operational security.
‘I travel with a very large Secret Service detail, and would it be a problem for the Vice President to show up with 30 siren cars at Mar-a-Lago an hour before this operation goes live? And we decided. Yes,’ Vance said.
‘I would just watch it remotely and ensure that we preserved operational security, which, by the way, we were able to do. One of the critical reasons that mission was ultimately successful is because no one found out about it.’
However, Vance admitted that he had not been in Florida every night that the mission could have gone ahead.
‘There were a few different nights that operation could have happened,’ the Vice President said. ‘I was not in Florida every night that we thought it might happen, but I was in Florida the night that we thought it was most likely and the night where we ultimately did it.’
Asked by the Mail if Trump was angered by his absence, Vance scoffed at the suggestion.
‘No, not at all. I was with the phone with the president and the entire team for about six hours for the entire course that operation,’ the Vice President insisted.
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‘I think it’s funny. The media tries to create something out of nothing.’
Operation Absolute Resolve lasted approximately 150 minutes and ended with the capture of Maduro and his wife by US special forces.
The former Venezuelan despot now faces multiple federal charges in the Southern District of New York, including narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and possession of machine guns.
