The White House continues to hope for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela, and will keep standing with Juan Guaido and the people of Venezuela, Secretary of State Mike Pence said Friday, while rejecting an argument from Rep. Ilhan Omar blaming the White House for setting policies that have brought unrest there.
"Well, we've put unprecedented sanctions on the [Nicolas] Maduro regime, on individuals in the regime and enterprises in the regime," Pence told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"We've marshaled unprecedented diplomatic pressure. We'll continue to do all that. All options are on the table."
However, Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, " showed she "doesn't know what she is talking about" with her comments blaming administration policies for Venezuela's situation.
"Nicolas Maduro is a Socialist dictator who has taken what was once one of the most prosperous nations in this hemisphere and brought it literally to a level of deprivation and oppression and poverty that we have never seen," said Pence. "Nine out of 10 people in Venezuela live in poverty and 3 million people have fled Venezuela. That's not a result of US policies. "That's a result of the dictatorship and socialism that has been imposed on the people of Venezuela by Nicolas Maduro."
The Trump administration has made it clear that it is not going to stand idly by while the people of Venezuela suffer under oppression and dictatorship and socialism, added Pence.
"I couldn't be more proud of the way President Trump directed our administration to be the first nation on Earth to recognize Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela," said Pence.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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