Overview
- The vice president says he was “in a van” about 20 miles from Mar-a-Lago in a mobile Situation Room after a 10:30 p.m. call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- He says they decided his large Secret Service motorcade could compromise the mission, so he monitored the operation by phone for roughly six hours.
- White House photos showed President Trump with senior national security officials at Mar-a-Lago during the raid, prompting questions about Vance’s absence.
- Operation Absolute Resolve lasted about 150 minutes and ended with the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas, with a photo later showing him aboard USS Iwo Jima.
- Maduro is now facing multiple charges in the Southern District of New York, including narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and possession of machine guns.