The Sunfiker, Candice Owens and all the other influencers have decided to give the world with their insightful takes on what's happening in Venezuela, and spoiler alert, they're not very insightful after all.

We're going to break this down plus so much more on today's episode of The Brad Versus Everyone podcast, my daily show where we take on the craziest stories from across the Internet and social media off from an independent political perspective.

Guys, thank you for tuning in.

There is so much to discuss, and of course, obviously we're going to touch on the situation in Venezuela, and just to kind of level set where I'm coming from.

I have been friends with and admired Venezuelan dissidents four years who were forced to flee the country because of the destructive socialism and authoritarian policies that took the prosperous, thriving, middle class country of Venezuela and destroyed it and made it into a dystopian healscape.

However, of course, I'm also somebody who cares about the constitution and about doing things the right way, and I have serious questions and concerns about what comes next in Venezuela and whether Trump was really legally or constitutionally authorized to do all of this.

But one thing you're never going to catch me doing is rooting for dictators or spreading fake news or conspiracy theories.

Yet that is how many in the influencer class have decided to respond to what's happening in Venezuela.

Up first, we've got to check in with left wing streaming star and YouTube Sensation, also beloved by every magazine that wants to give him a glossy cover shoot because all these liberal women journalists thirst after him.

Hassan Piker, of course, or Hassanabi as he is known online.

He's not doing great at the moment because, of course he low key.

I don't know if he would admit this, but he would.

He probably admired Chavez and Maduro, the socialist dictators of Venezuela, because they stood for and implemented a lot of the policies that the Democratic Socialists of America types like Hassan actually want to implement here in the US.

So he is not thrilled, to say the least, to see Trump go in and take down the dictator, and rather than raise serious procedural questions about the legality and constitutionality of Trump's move or question what comes next, Hassan is instead attacking America and lashing out at Venezuelan's who are happy that this their long nightmare may soon come to an end.

So there's a lot to unpack here from Hassan.

First, though, I just want to check in on something kind of hilarious, which is that just days ago, with twenty twenty six being rung in Happy New Year, by the way, Hassan made some predictions for twenty twenty six and one of them was that Trump would not invade Venezuela, and just days later, obviously that has aged.

Like milk, let's watch this clip.

Trump expands Latin American imposturing.

I don't think Trump is gonna dude, this is gonna be a Russia Ukraine situation possibly, but Trump doesn't invade Venezuela.

So the funny part here is that Hassan also famously predicted that Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine, which of course it did, and now here he is predicting just days ago that Trump will not invade Venezuela.

This year and then Trump immediately invades Venezuela.

So predictions when it comes to political pundits is a dangerous game, and there should be a lot more humility.

So like, you're not gonna catch me telling you I know what's gonna happen and what's not gonna happen.

Categorically, I could give you some analysis, but I'm pretty hesitant to make a bold declarations because they can and do age terribly, as Hassans did here and in the Ukraine War and others.

And I do come back to this question of how many times can these massive pundits and personalities get things so totally wrong before people start like giving them a little bit of side eye and saying, hey, am I really going to continue to trust this person for news and analysis after so many predictions and claims they've made have turned out to be not true or false or instantly disproven or debunked like this one.

And people should have asked themselves that question about Hassan a long time ago, if you ask me.

But now we're going to get to the part where Hassan mocks Venezuelans for being happy that Maduro has been removed from power and it's really remarkable stuff.

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So anyway, guys, his son, a nuanced critique of what Trump has done here could sound something like this.

Of course, I'm happy for the Venezuelan people to be free of this nightmare.

This dictator deserved his fate.

However, what Trump did here is illegal and unconstitutional.

It's an act of war, bombing military bases and baiting a country, and you need congressional approval from that and a history of regime change in this country.

Efforts abroad hasn't gone well, So what comes next?

Are we going to have to occupy to stabilize the country.

Is it going to cause a refugee crisis?

Are we just going to put an even worse regime and power, and there's so many legitimate discussions to be had here, but mocking and insulting Venezuelans who are happy that, of course the dictator who destroyed their country has finally got hit with instant karma.

Isn't one of them.

But that's what Hassan decided to do.

Listen to this clip.

It's really quite something.

And a lot of those Venezuelans, some of them are gonna be in the chat today, are gonna talk like this is a fantastic moment and Trump is a great liberator.

Bit well, Hassan, they might talk like that because their country has been destroyed by these monsters, Like can't you comprehend that?

Can't you acknowledge that?

That regardless of whether you agree with what Trump did or not.

And I can respect the debate across the spectrum on that front.

Of course, Venezuelan ex patriots, I mean, like eight million people were forced to flee the country because of the political instability and economic destruction and censorious illiberalism of this regime.

Yeah, of course they're going to be happy to see that guy taken down.

What it's not clocking to you, like justin Bieber or Meme what's going on here?

What part of that is worthy of derision?

I genuinely don't get it.

But here's the rest of this.

And he had to make it vulgar, of course, because why not.

Reader, bitch, He's saying, you're a rapist.

Okay, I need you to understand this.

If you're a Venezuelan expat, if you are a Venezuelan refugee living in the United States of America, understands something.

He is saying, you're a rapist drug dealer that will get sent to see gott Okay, it doesn't matter whether you like Maduro or whether you hate the Chavistas or or whatever.

The Okay, he will use you like a pawd Okay, you are like a You're like a like a comrag.

Oh that is so disgusting and unprofessional, Like how is this guy one of the biggest voices on the internet when it comes to political commentary and discourse, and he's talking like that about these issues.

But one, I don't really think what he's saying here is true.

I don't believe that President Trump.

Well, he certainly, you know, ranted and raved about immigrants and illegal immigrants and this and that and said all sorts of things.

I don't necessarily agree with the idea that he categorically views all Venezuelan immigrants as like criminals or rapists or scum or something I don't think is true.

I mean, he's met with many of them, there are many of them in his administration.

Now, there's a couple different distinctions to be made here between illegal immigrants, which Trump does speak about in these very broad ways that I think paint with far too broad a brush.

And he has revoked temporary protected status for one group of Venezuelan immigrants that was given it under Biden, but he actually authorized Trump extended legal authorization in his first term to some Venezuelan migrants and he has not revoked it.

So certainly he doesn't think they are all just rapists and scum and criminals and drug dealers.

And he's certainly not trying to send them to SEACAT or see DOT whatever the acronym is for the dystopian El Salvadoran prison that he was sending some immigrants to.

Yeah, this just isn't really true.

And the other point is, even if it was so, even if Trump was hateful, categorically towards Venezuelan people, which his many false aside I don't really think is true.

But regardless, let's say that's true.

So therefore you can't be happy if he takes down the dictator that ruined your country.

That doesn't really equate that just because this person is bad or hateful towards me in one way, if they take an action that I support, I must be not support that.

That doesn't really make a lot of sense if you're coming at this from the lens of critical thinking rather than I don't know, blind tribalism trump bad ah, socialism good.

That's the problem that I keep coming back here.

Two.

Hassan is really he's engaged in motivated reasoning here.

He has to find a reason to kind of downplay the regime and make it seem like the US is just categorically evil for wanting to do anything about it.

Because this regime is fundamentally like what Hassan Piker and his ILK want to do to our country.

They tell even Zoorn Mamdani.

They talk about democratic socialism as opposed to you know, the nasty authoritarian socialism that cost tens of millions of people their lives in the twentieth century.

No, no, no, we're democratic socialists, right, that's what they say.

But here's the thing about that.

The uh in Venezuela, the socialism that destroyed their country, forced eight million people to flee, was democratic socialism.

They elected Hugo Chavez in nineteen ninety eight, I believe, let me just check my notes.

Yeah, nineteen ninety eight.

And he went on and he nationalized industries, he seized private property, He massively expanded price controls and subsidies, exploded government spending on welfare, printed money to pay for it.

All.

That's the same kind of thing that our left wing democratic socialist friends pushed when it comes to modern monetary theory.

And it was initially all done through legitimate democratic government.

So they implemented a socialistic agenda government control over the economy through democratic means, and then it destroyed the country, caused hyperinflation, an economic crisis.

They were literally eating pets and eating rats.

They were reduced to.

That forced millions of people to flee.

And then once they had concentrated control over the economy and they had just so much power over people's livelihoods, well, they slowly whittled away at the whole democratic part, and they ended up over the years just becoming an authoritarian regime that held onto power illegitimately.

So this is the problem with democratic socialism.

It starts democratic, sure, but it doesn't stay democratic necessarily, and it still involves many of the same ruinous economic policies.

So what we have here is Hassan being forced to kind of muddy the waters about the situation and not just be honest that Maduro was evil and deserved a downfall of some kind, whether you agree with what Trump did or not, because that's like his man.

I mean, we literally had Bernie Sanders advisors years ago writing about Hugo Shav's economic miracle for left wing outlets positively, and then they stopped talking about it when it all went to shit.

Funny how that works.

And of course with his son, just no matter what, America has to be evil and the worst most evil thing ever.

Here's another clip from his stream discussing this issue.

Let's watch the United States is the greatest terrorist of all time.

It's the number one terrorist on the planet.

It's really funny that people try to act like that's not the case.

It's really funny that they even try to make it seem as though there's any sort of legal justification for what we did last night.

So I am totally open to criticisms of the United States, of the US government, of our foreign policy, our roles abroad.

But you just lose me when you say this kind of insane, hyperbolic shit.

And I actually think I've been reading Iliya Sohman over at the Volca Conspiracy and other constitutional conservatives like Ram Paul have talked about how their serious legal and constitutional objections to the actions that Trump has taken in Venezuela.

But when you conflate that with America, evil, America's the number one terrorism is sponsor terroristic state in the world, just like obviously laughably absurd and untrue claims.

Yeah, people aren't gonna take you seriously.

They're gonna write that off for the ridiculousness that it is.

But somehow millions of people are still turning in to Hasan Piker for his political wisdom and insight.

But remember, guys, the reason there's so much cope about Venezuela and so much muddying of the waters in denial and gaslighting from far left eige in America is because the vision for Venezuela is their vision for America.

It is if you were to look at the Democratic Socialists of America, like the actual political party in their platform, which Hassan Buying large supports pretty openly.

If you were to look at the thing Zoren Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, has supported over the years, it is not one hundred percent copy and paste what they did in Venezuela, but it's certainly if you were to submit the two you'd get flagged for mostly played Riz.

We'll put it that way.

There's so much overlap there, and in fact it is literally democratic socialism, which is still socialism and still fails and is still fundamentally evil.

So that's why there is this muddying of the waters that I do consider to be really unfortunate and dishonest.

But other than that, Hassan Piker is doing exactly what he always does.

You guys, let me know what you think in the comments.

Make you're subscribed, hit the like button and police do consider becoming a channel member on YouTube to support my content if you can and like comment YadA YadA.

Yeah.

Now, guys, we got to check in with more influencers and misinformation spreading like wildfire after Trump's incursion in Venezuela to take custody of abduct depending what language you want to use, the dictator of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, And we got to check in with Candaeoan's, the right wing YouTube star and self described conspiracy theorists, who has become an outspoken voice for kind of the anti interventionist write.

And I certainly think, like I've said, that there are many legitimate critiques and complaints to be had about what the Trump administration is doing in Venezuela.

But then there's also some not so legitimate or coherent critiques, and there's a whole lot of fake news and misinformation being spread on both sides of this debate.

Right now, we're gonna go all of that, starting with Candice Owens, who to me, I'm not somebody who thinks Israel is beyond reproach or we can't have those conversations or debate.

But there is something of a derangement in the other direction where people suddenly start to think literally everything is about Israel when it is not, in fact, all about Israel.

And President Trump's decision to intervene in Venezuela is about a lot of things.

I think it's about obviously wanting to liberate the people of Venezuela because there is a massive expatriate community in America and in the Trump administration of Latino Republicans who've wanted this for years.

It's also about oil that's undeniable, about wanting to secure Venezuela's oil resources for American companies.

Trump has openly admitted it.

And then I think it's also a bit of a personal vendetta.

Madureau openly mocked Trump, which is pretty if you ask me a stupid thing to do, we'll be regretting that.

Now.

There's so many reasons for this, but one thing that's not really at play is Israel.

Trump is not doing this because Israel wants him to.

That's that's not it at all.

Yet, that's what Candice Owen's immediately went with.

Let's look at the tweet she posted that quickly went viral.

Nezuela has been quote unquote liberated, like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq where quote unquote liberated.

The CIA has staged another hostile takeover of a country at the behest of a glob of a globalist psychopaths.

Yeah, so that's written incorrectly.

I'm not misreading it.

That's how it's written.

That's it, that's what's happening.

That's what is happening.

Always everywhere, Zionists cheer every regime change.

There has never been a single regime change that Zionists have not applauded because it means they get to steal land, oil and other resources.

Hope this helps, uh, narrator, It did, not, in fact help, because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Immediately seeing what's going on in Venezuela and yelling Zionists and talking about Israel doesn't make sense because it doesn't really have that much to do with that.

Obviously, there is a dimension to this where Nicholas Maduro and the Venezuelan government were outspokenly anti Israel.

But like, so what that doesn't really Venezuela is such a tiny player, and of especially after all the crisis and catastrophe that it's suffered economically speaking, in the political isolation, it's not an influential player on the world stage that's meaningfully constrained Israel in any way.

So like it's not a big deal in terms of Israel's top objectives to get Madua out of power, because he's just creating so many problems from them, like, no, they can't even feed their people, they're not wielding massive amounts of global influence, and regardless, that's just not what's at play here.

And for her to say like, oh, liberate in quotes, do you not agree that the people of Venezuela were being brutally oppressed by Maduro?

I think you should at least acknowledge that.

You can disagree with the intervention.

But when you act like, oh, it's just sham that we're liberating anyone, I think a lot of Venezuelan people would object to that and disagree with that because they've wanted I've even seen very liberal Venezuelans who hate Donald Trump for all the other reasons, being like, guys, we gotta give them this one, or at least even if they don't agree with the way it's being done, which I don't necessarily, but they acknowledge that the people were being oppressed.

And when you can acknowledge these truths, when you can hold these nuances at the same time, it makes any criticisms you have seem much more nuanced and reasonable than we just are rambling about Zionists over and over again.

They just want to steal oil and all this.

Obviously that's part of it.

But also it's not like that's not a Zionist thing.

That's a corporate thing.

It's a profit seeking thing.

It's an American thing where Trump wants to get rich, but not because he's Zionists like you think the American oil companies want to get into Venezuela and get their resources because of Israel.

It's like, not everything is about Israel.

And this can go in either direction.

You have people on one side or the other extreme of that debate where it becomes an all encompassing worldview when it's not, in fact, the root of everything happening in society and in the world at all times.

Sorry not sorry at Candace, but it's it's just not And when you insist otherwise, it makes you seem a little crazy, especially because there's no like.

That was her first statement about this, her first public commentary about this, was to immediately connect it to Israel when it's really not about that.

I don't know, it's not helping you beat the obsession allegations, which aren't even allegations at this point, they're just just facts.

Other than that, though Candace is doing great.

She also attached this clip of She shared this clip of Tucker Carlson then, which is such a weird clip.

Man, I just I'll just roll it.

We'll listen to it.

And we've discussed this in the past, but it's useful context here.

Let's listen.

Ben Shapiro was just saying they're being interviewed by Megan Kelly and said something.

He said something like, well, Tucker Carlson's, you know for Maduro Maduro, the communist leader of Venezuela, who I guess we're on the way to killing or something forcing out regime changing him, and he defended Maduro didn't actually and Meghan Kelly says, well, Tucker said in his show that Maduro most people didn't know this, whatever his many faults, I wouldn't hire him as an economist.

Okay, but whatever's many faults, has the most socially conservative country probably in the hemisphere.

So that's like a die.

I'll let him finish.

But that's like just such a diabolical understatement.

Oh, you know, the socialist dictator who caused hyper inflation and left people eating rats and force millions to flee.

Well, you know, maybe I wouldn't hire him as an economist.

What the hemisphere, so Venezuela is just a fact.

I mean, I didn't make this up.

I'm not in charge of Venezuela.

Just noticing that Venezuela has band pornography, band abortion, bang, gay marriage, ban sex changes, and ban usury.

You don't have credit cards with forty percent interest in Venezuela.

This is so random.

First, not all of this is true.

Pornography is heavily restricted but still basically widespread available in Venezuela.

And then like, okay, congrats, you really hate gay people getting married that much that you're like, whoa, that's socialist healscape.

At least they don't let gay people happily wed their partners.

That what could I say?

That's really you know, I'm just asking questions.

What are in that crazy chuckle that he does?

Oh that's I can't really do good impersonations, but you guys get what I'm saying.

And then this whole thing about credit cards, so they have interest rate caps on credit cards.

Bitch, people are eating rats, They're fleeing the country as a refugee, and you're like, well, the credit card company is there can't charge forty percent interest rates.

So I'm just asking questions, is that really the worst regime?

I don't know, Like the priorities are so out of whack here, to say nothing of the fact that per usual, he's not like accurately factually describing the reality on the ground in Venezuela.

But then he's gonna detail his beef here more with Ben Shapiro and other people.

But Candace shared this clip because evidently she also I mean, I don't know, maybe she agrees with Tucker's suggestion that it's all part of global Homo, as if the Trump administration think about this, the ones doing this regime change whether you like it or not, whether you support it or don't.

He's the Trump administration, and argument is that part of the reason they're doing it.

He literally used the term global Homo is to install a pro gay marriage regime and apparently install like, are we supposed to believe they want more abortion in Venezuela the Trump administration, It doesn't actually make sense.

But I don't think the point is to make sense.

I think the point is to be edgy and contrarian, and I guess at that they've succeeded.

I don't know, what do you guys think?

Let me know.

They also, just like again with the misinformation, they spread some significant misleading information in the aftermath of all of this happening.

Candice Owens, for example, retweeted the comedian and libertarian commentator Dave Smith, who shared a breaking news report from something called Leading Report.

They said breaking Venezuelan migrants can apply to become refugees in the United States per DHS Secretary Kirsty Christy Nome.

Dave ironically quoted that and said America first exclamation mark.

So the idea here is breaking news.

Christinoam the head of DHS for Trump, says all these people in Venezuela can come to the US as refugees.

But that's actually not what she said, and there of course against refugee resettlement and don't want mass migration.

We could have that conversation, but more importantly, that's not what she said.

She simply restated the fact that people who are currently or were in the United States already on temporary protected status of Venezuelan origin.

So not all the people in Venezuela now coming to America, as they're kind of portraying it, the people who were already here under temporary protected status can apply for asylum if they still feel they can't go back to Venezuela.

That's just a factual statement that they can apply.

It's not new, and yes, she said it in an interview I think yesterday or the day before, but it's not breaking news and it's not a policy change of any kind.

They can apply and they might not get it.

So the Department for Homeland Security replied and said, this is not what Secretary Noomes said.

President Trump is bringing stability to Venezuela and bringing to justice an illegitimate narco terrorist dictator who stole from his own people.

Secretary Nome ended temporary predicted status for more than five hundred thousand Venezuelans and now they can go home to a country that they love.

So that's actually the interesting thing here is the Trump administration ended legal status for many Venezuelans who were in the US and had been given it by the Biden administration, which I didn't agree with and thought was unfair to some of those people who couldn't go back to Venezuela.

But so then you have these like true America firsters on the right Dave Smith Candice Owen's attacking the Trump administration for like supposedly being too pro refugee and welcoming in hordes of refugees.

But that's literally the opposite.

Whether you agree with them or not, Trump administration has heavily restricted the refugee resettlement to the US and has canceled status for people like it just again is not correct and is spreading a narrative to millions of people that is fundamentally not rooted in reality, all based in a distortion of what Christynom actually said.

I have the actual clip of her that they are misconstruing.

Let's listen to this.

Well, Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday, and it's going to continue to be that way as long as President Trump is in the White House and is making sure that he's protecting the interests of the American people, because that ripple effect will will continue to bring that kind of liberty to Venezuela as well.

These programs were bringing integrity back to them.

The decisions are made in conjunction with the state Department with the White House, and then we at the Homeland Security implement them and make sure that they are followed through.

So every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will forward.

But we need to make sure that our programs actually mean something and that we're following the law, and that's how that decision with TPS was made.

So again, guys, what Christinomes said is that if you were in the US on TPS Temporary Protective Status and you're Venezuelan, you don't have to go back if you feel that you can't, if you can apply for refugee status and stay.

But you can apply, she said, they can apply, which is just true.

They can.

It is an option they are able to do, and then the Trump adminstration can decide whether to approve it or not.

And they are misconstruing that statement to act as if Christinome and the Trump administration are welcoming hordes of Venezuelans into our country.

That's not true.

Who are in Venezuela now and now that we've toppled the regime, come on in.

So it's just I absolutely think we need a legitimate and robust debate about what Trump did and whether it's legal, whether it's illegal, whether it's gonna make things worse.

But of course, I mean, I'm just so happy for the Venezuelan people who've been freed from this monster, regardless.

But I do think there's a legitimate discussion to be had about whether it's gonna make things worse in the long run, whether we're gonna get sucked in to protracted conflict.

But why do people have to spread fake news and wild conspiracies that it's really all somehow about Israel and all this other stuff.

I just find it exhausting, and I think it just far more to mislead and audiences and divide Americans than it does to actually further the conversation about these important issues.

But that's just my take on it all.

Guys, y'all will have to let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks you subscribed with the like button and all of that, and guys, that'll be it for today's episode of the Brad Versus Everyone Podcast.

Thanks so much for listening, and we will talk again real s.

Yeah,