SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith denounced Democrats for their criticism of the Trump administration’s capture and removal of Venezuelan Dictator Nicolás Maduro during a special edition of “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” on Tuesday.
The first Trump administration placed a $15 million bounty on Maduro in 2020, which the Biden administration boosted to $25 million in January 2025 and the second Trump administration increased it to up to $50 million in August 2025, according to the State Department. Smith highlighted the bipartisan nature of the bounties on his show, arguing Democrats’ complaints were inconsistent.
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“If you got a bounty on his head and the Biden administration had a bounty on his head, and then another $50 million bounty on his head — 15 to 25 to 50 — once you got his ass, that’s not something to be complaining about, ’cause everybody was in on it,” Smith said. “Everybody was cool with it. If you’re cool with the bounty, you got to be cool with the capture. And not an American soldier died. Not one. Not an American citizen got harmed. Not one! Not one! Not one!”
While seven American service members were wounded in the operation, a Trump administration official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that five had resumed work already and two were “well on their way to recovery.”
“Come on now. This is what I mean when I talk about us being fair. There’s a lot of things I don’t like about what the president’s doing or how he might do it. I don’t like the style at all,” Smith added. “But in the end, when it’s effective, it’s effective, and you got to give credit where it’s due. That’s how you legitimately grill him when you diametrically oppose what he’s doing, because it makes sense. Because you’re not engaging in partisanship. You’re consistent.”
Former Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams also called out former Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday after she criticized the operation, based on the bounty the Biden-Harris administration placed.
“Public safety is not a political game,” Adams wrote in an X post responding to Harris’ post. “You do not label someone a narco-dictator one year and then pretend he is no longer a threat the next simply because a different president is in office.”
Congressional Democrats immediately railed against the operation on Saturday, arguing that Trump lacked legal authority without congressional approval and that it did not align with American interests to use military force against Maduro’s regime.
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said on “CNN News Central” on Tuesday that support for the operation surged, citing Reuters/Ipsos and Washington Post polling.
“Pre-ousting, what you saw was the clear plurality of Americans opposed it — 47%,” Enten said. “Just 21% supported it … After the ousting, look at that — the support through the roof. Now we’re talking about 37%, well within the margin of error right here of the opposition, 38%.”
Moreover, although 65% of Republicans supported the operation, 54% were concerned that the U.S. could become excessively entangled in Venezuelan affairs, according to a Reuters poll published on Monday.
Delta Force conducted the operation, bringing Maduro to the U.S., where he faces four criminal charges, including narco-terrorism. The former dictator pleaded not guilty during his Monday arraignment.
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