Marco Rubio drew praise from conservatives after befuddling CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan in an interview about the US military's capture of Nicolas Maduro.
Brennan challenged the secretary of state, who has been one of the public faces of Donald Trump's efforts to extradite the Venezuelan dictator, on why they didn't bring Maduro's associates in with him.
'I'm confused, are they still wanted by the United States? Why didn't you arrest them if you are taking out the narcoterrorist regime?' Brennan asked.
Rubio gave a bemused response: 'You're confused? I don't know why that's confusing to you.'
Brennan responded by pointing out that Maduro's regime remains in power without him for the time being.
'You're gonna go in and suck up five people? They're already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four people,' he said bluntly.
Rubio said that getting Maduro and his wife out of Caracas in a 'sophisticated operation' was what they were focused on.
'We got the top priority, the number one person on the list was the guy that claimed to be the president of the country that he was not,' he added.
Rubio further called it 'absurd' to wonder why they didn't try to pull off the mission 'in five other places at the same time.'
'It is not easy to land a helicopter in the middle of the largest military base in the country, land within three minutes kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets,' he said.
Brennan flailed afterwards, claiming she still wanted to know why they focused on Maduro.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt heaped praise on Rubio, saying he 'ran laps around Margaret Brennan this morning.'
One conservative added: 'Rubio from the top rope with style and substance. I don’t know how @margbrennan recovers from this - although she may not be self aware enough to know how miserably she failed here.'
Another wondered: 'Why even go on these shows? The interviewers are hostile no matter what and extremely low IQ. I don't see any benefit in going on their network and providing them content.'
'This is inherently un-American propaganda, and the sooner Bari Weiss recognizes that Margaret Brennan is unfit to represent CBS any longer, the better. This isn’t pragmatic questioning, it’s purposefully looking for a way to undermine an objectively successful mission,' said another.
Trump appeared to hint at what was next for the remaining members of the Maduro government earlier Sunday.
Trump, who said just hours after arresting Maduro and his wife in Caracas that he preferred hardline socialist Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as Maduro's successor rather than the country's opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, appeared to change his tune on Sunday morning.
Now, the commander-in-chief says if Rodriguez 'doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,' Trump told The Atlantic.
As for the country's future, Trump said: 'You know, rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse.'
Meanwhile, Rodriguez and Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, are not backing down from Trump.
The Maduro loyalist, who has helped him maintain his regime for over a decade, has vented her fury at Trump's capture of the despot, whom she called her nation's rightful leader.
Rodriguez, who also serves as minister for finance and oil, slammed Maduro's arrest as 'an atrocity that violates international law' and called for his 'immediate release'.
'We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone,' she asserted during a National Defense Council session after the US military operation.
'That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country.'
She also insinuated that she was not as on board with helping the US essentially run Venezuela as Trump had suggested.
Trump offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30million, but suggested the country's vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival.
Maduro is currently languishing in a New York federal jail after being taken in by US authorities on drug trafficking charges on Saturday.
Following the capture of Maduro, Trump was spotted with a crowd of adoring Venezuelans at a luxury Mar-a-Lago dinner party.
Videos posted on social media by Venezuelan influencers show them hugging the US President and thanking him for ridding their country of the despot on Saturday.
More than eight million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014 due to rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare, and food shortages. As a result, the country has been left facing one of the largest displacement crises in the world, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday, jubilant Venezuelans spilled out onto the streets to welcome the news with singing and dancing, while waving both US and Venezuelan flags.
One person celebrating in Chile said: 'I've come to celebrate because the dictatorship has fallen, Maduro's drug trafficking has fallen, and Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello.
'We are free, we are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen and that we have a free country.'
Another in Doral, Florida, added: 'Today, justice is being served. Justice is being served for all the Venezuelans who left our country to demonstrate who we are.
'We are fighters, we entrepreneurs, we are good people but we want to return to our country and rebuild, move forward and continue being that force that we have always been.
'Long live Venezuela.'
The New York indictment against Maduro accuses him of leading a 'a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.'
It alleges that the drug trafficking efforts 'enriched and entrenched Venezuela's political and military elite.'
US authorities allege that Maduro partnered with 'some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world' to bring tons of cocaine into North America.
Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment.
The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or via planes from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.
Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely in the meantime, after dismissing the prospect of the country's popular opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, taking the reins, claiming she 'does not have the support'.
He offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30 million, but suggested the country's vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival.
Trump's unapologetic focus on the South American nation's oil supplies has prompted many US lawmakers to accuse him of being primarily motivated by economic gain, rather than a desire to pursue criminal charges.
