While many Democrats erupted at President Donald Trump‘s decision to arrest Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, one particular prior taunt from former President Joe Biden resurfaced Sunday and promptly got ratioed.
Responding to an Axios report on June 21, 2020, that Trump would consider meeting with Maduro after the despot ignored the disputed election versus opposition leader Juan Guaidó, Biden said, “Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolás Maduro.”
“As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy,” Biden added.
Soon after the weekend operation at Miraflores – the Venezuelan dictator’s official residence – conservatives and at least one left-leaning political activist highlighted how, in the words of several civilian respondents, the comment “aged like milk.”
“Whoops,” remarked Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who is also running for the Yellowhammer State’s governorship this year.
“And now, every Democrat is denouncing an operation to execute a federal warrant while we slept,” Tuberville said.
The Auburn football legend went on to claim Biden’s comment showed “Democrats have no principles [and] it’s about whatever way the left wind is blowing to gain power.”
“Yesterday’s margaritas with Kilmar Abrego Garcia is today’s Maduro,” he said. “They’ll support a drug-trafficking dictator because this was another Trump win. Guaranteed.”
The Trump campaign arm’s “Rapid Response 47” X account also re-upped Biden’s message, responding with a photograph of Maduro blindfolded on a U.S. government aircraft following his capture.
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“A tweet that did not age well,” added Fox News host and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
“Has anyone called to see if Joe is still sleeping?” remarked Pennsylvania state Rep. Aaron Bernstine, who represents Butler County, where Trump was nearly assassinated in 2024.
One respondent on X replied with a clip of Earl Sinclair from the 1990s ABC sitcom, “Dinosaurs,” expressing surprise and dropping a glass.
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“This aged well,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said of Biden’s comment.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., added in a statement on social media that Trump “doesn’t just talk tough, he is tough.”
“Does Joe Biden have anything to say now?” she asked, as other critics cited a second Biden comment from that timeframe wherein the Delaware Democrat called Maduro a dictator and criticized his “human rights violations and extrajudicial killings.”
“Wait. You mean ‘Don’t’ diplomacy didn’t get it done?” remarked former NYPD inspector Paul Mauro, who is also a Fox News contributor.
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Mauro had referenced Biden’s widely circulated response to an inquiry about what his message to Iran would be to prevent them from intervening in Israel. “Don’t,” Biden replied before leaving the stage where he was speaking at MS-NOW host Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.
In 2022, Biden climate envoy John Kerry – a former Massachusetts senator – was videotaped shaking hands and smiling in brief conversation with Maduro at the United Nations’ climate change summit that year in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
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When pressed on the surprisingly jovial greeting, Kerry spokesman Ned Price said the Venezuelan leader had “interrupted what was an ongoing meeting at COP27” and called the exchange “very much an unplanned interaction.”
Other critics pointed out that former President Barack Obama established the first bounty on Maduro’s head in 2015 via executive order, which was increased by the Biden administration, then doubled to $50 million by Trump more recently.
“Joe Biden hated Maduro just as much. He just wasn’t bold enough to get him,” said Ja’Mal Green, a former Chicago mayoral candidate and community activist who previously aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., but appeared to sour on some of the far-left’s policies under current Mayor Brandon Johnson and now identifies as “politically independent.”
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“All [Biden] did was impose sanctions and never get the money owed. Democrats have to stop.”
“Under Biden, he watched as Maduro slaughtered and oppressed the people of Venezuela. He watched as Maduro lost the election but still declared himself the winner. He then just allowed millions of Venezuelans to come to America to claim refuge, costing us hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Green, who has also criticized Johnson over Chicago’s response to the illegal immigration crisis.
“Under Trump, Maduro FAFO. He swooped in and took him out of the country altogether,” Green said.
“Regardless of our disagreements, sometimes diplomacy doesn’t work, and we must use aggression to free a nation. Trump freed Venezuelans today and I hope one day they can go home to a stable country.”
Green referenced recent nationwide protests against Trump and said the craziest part of “socialist[s] crying about Trump taking Maduro [was] saying it’s because he wanted a regime change. Maduro didn’t win the election. He’s only there because he took over the country. I thought y’all didn’t want kings.”
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Biden for comment.
