Trump’s hardline adviser warns: ‘US will NOT let a country fall into our adversaries’ hands’

US Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller said America was not going to let "tin-pot communist dictators" send drugs and weapons into the country. He also went on a rant defending Donald Trump-led US administration’s aggression in Venezuela, till the interviewer – Jake Tapper of CNN – had to interrupt him. When asked why Trump was so swift in dismissing Nobel Peace Prize-winner María Corina Machado to run the country after they captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores, Miller said it was not even a “serious question”. 

Tapper said Washington "invaded" Venezuela and seized the leader to which Miller said, "Damn straight we did!! We're not going to let tin-pot communist dictators send rapists into our country, send drugs into our country, send weapons into our country, and we're not going to let a country fall into the hands of our adversaries."

When asked why Trump dismissed Machado as a “weak leader”, Miller responded, “First of all, all Venezuelan experts agree that it would be absurd and preposterous for us to put her in charge, and the military would follow her and the security forces would follow her. This is not even a serious question.” 

Miller then went on a rant when asked if there should be an election. “Let me tell you what we are doing here. The US is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We are a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It is absurd that we would allow a nation in our own backyard to be a supplier of resources to our adversaries but not to us, to hoard weapons from our adversaries, to be able to be positioned as an asset against the US rather than on behalf of the US…”

Tapper then interrupted Miller to ask if sovereign countries should not be able to do as they wished. However, Miller continued, “…the Monroe Doctrine and the Trump Doctrine is all about securing the national interests of America. For years, we sent our soldiers to die in the desert in the Middle East to try to build their Parliaments, their democracies, trying to give them more oil, trying to give more resources. The future of the free world depends on America to be able to assert ourselves and our interests without an apology. This whole period that happened after World War II where the West began apologising and grovelling and begging…”

To this, Tapper interrupted him and said, “…I don’t even know what you are talking about…I asked you about the election in Venezuela and why was the President so quick to dismiss Machado…”

“…The objective is to bring security and stability to the people of Venezuela. With our help and leadership that country will become more prosperous than it has been in its whole history.” 

This comes after Venezuela's vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the interim president. Trump, meanwhile, had dismissed the idea of working with Machado, saying "she doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country”.

Trump said he will not hold elections in Venezuela for the next 30 days. “We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote…It’s going to take a period of time. We have to nurse the country back to health," he said.