Overview
- Rachel Campos-Duffy told Fox & Friends Weekend that she may have been “too naive” in believing President Trump’s actions in Venezuela were primarily meant to free the country from authoritarian rule.
- She criticized Delcy Rodríguez as part of Venezuela’s old regime and said many Venezuelans view the administration’s oil agreement with distrust.
- President Trump has billed the deal as giving the U.S. majority control of roughly 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves, a claim observers say raises major strategic and economic questions.
- Campos-Duffy argued that genuine, internationally credible elections are the only way to settle whether U.S. motives serve Venezuelan citizens or other interests and she predicted María Corina Machado would win if voting were allowed now.
- The remarks are an uncommon public split within conservative media and could deepen scrutiny of the deal’s legitimacy and U.S. standing in Latin America as reports note Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president and was reportedly captured by U.S. forces earlier this year.