CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan sparred with White House official Mike Waltz over deportation flights in a heated clash – with President Donald Trump’s security advisor seizing on her claim that “no one is defending gangs.”
On Sunday, during CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Brennan took aim at President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to send alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s invocation of the act.
“The American people are tired of being terrorized by these gangs,” Waltz said.
Brennan responded: “No one is defending gangs, but there is concern –”
Waltz jumped in and retorted that it sounds like Democrats and the judge who halted the act’s use are, in fact, defending gangs.
“There is concern this is being carried out in a sloppy way,” Brennan said as the two spoke over one another.
Brennan noted that one man sent on a flight to El Salvador earlier this month was rejected because he “wasn’t even Venezuelan at all,” and another was rejected because she was a woman and “they can’t be held at a maximum security prison.”
“How does that kind of high consequence mistake happen?” Brennan asked Waltz.
“I can’t speak to those individual cases,” Waltz replied, “but what I can speak to is President Trump has determined that this group is acting as a terrorist organization.”
He added that the Alien Enemies Act “fully applies,” arguing that the Tren de Aragua gang is acting as “a proxy of the Maduro regime.”
In response, Brennan argued that the act is meant to be used during wartime.
“You are saying you have evidence that the government of Venezuela is directing gangs?” the CBS News anchor asked.
Waltz repeated that the gang is acting as a proxy of the Maduro regime, and that district judges should not interfere with Trump’s actions.
“So the US is at war with Venezuela?” Brennan asked again.
Waltz replied: “In this case, the commander in chief, President Trump, is taking decisive action to rid our communities of these gangs that are operating in a paramilitary fashion and that we know Maduro is deliberately emptying his prisons in a proxy manner to influence and attack the United States.”
“But that’s so different. The US is not at war with the country of Venezuela,” Brennan said.
Brennan noted that Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to take the issue of deportation flights to the Supreme Court if necessary, asking Waltz if he wants “to have this fight.”
“Margaret, we have instances where the IRGC from Iran have operated with and through Mexican cartels to then bomb facilities here in the United States,” Waltz said.
“We’ve taken decisive action in that regard. We’re going to take decisive action in this regard, and we’re making a Washington D.C. distinction.”
