National security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that members of the Tren de Aragua crime group were working as “representatives” for Venezuela on CBS's “Face the Nation.”
Partial transcripts as follows:
Margaret Brennan: I would like to ask Tren de Aragua from TDA and what's going on here. He has been designated as a terrorist by the Trump administration. Last Saturday, 238 Venezuelan men were handed over to the Salvadoran government. Of these, 137 were deported using this rarely used, Alien Enemy Act of 1789. This is important because it gives the power to detain and deport any country without court hearing if it comes from a country at war with the United States at Friday's hearing. It has been revealed that El Salvador, where El Salvador is being held, has rejected two people. The other is because the person was not even a Venezuelan. How do such a resultant mistake occur?
WALTZ: Well, we personally deal with this kind of one-off thing, but Margaret, there are two fundamental issues here –
Brennan: So, was there a mistake you would admit here?
WALTZ: I can't talk about the details of these individual cases and individual cases, but what I can talk about is that President Trump has determined that this group is acting as a terrorist organization. The assault, torture, rape and terrorizing our community through the worst situations of these communities, number one, number two, is that this group has determined that it is acting as a proxy for the Maduro regime, and therefore the act of aliens and sedition applies in full. So-
Brennan: You have – to make it clear, sorry. This is supposed to apply if the United States is at war with the country. You say you have evidence –
Waltz: We're saying –
Brennan: – Is the Venezuelan government leading these gangs?
Waltz: – We're saying – TDA is acting as a proxy for the Maduro administration. This is how aliens and agitators apply, and we cannot interfere with district judges who interfere with the commander in Chief's actions to determine that he is a terrorist organisation as he thinks it is necessary.
Brennan: So is the US fighting Venezuela?
Waltz: And we have to tell you, we can – we can discuss Article 3, Article 3. That's quite a debate. But in this case, President Trump's commander is taking crucial action to remove these gang communities operating in paramilitary fashion.
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