'Let me ask the question again': Marco Rubio stumbles when pressed on Venezuela takeover

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was pressed Sunday by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos after dodging a question about the Trump administration’s authority to control a foreign nation following its hostile takeover of Venezuela on Saturday.

Stephanopoulos asked Rubio “under what legal authority” could the United States government control Venezuela, with President Donald Trump announcing Saturday that his administration would “run” Venezuela until a transfer of power can take place.

Rubio dodged that question, and instead spoke to how the Trump administration’s aggressive operation would halt Venezuela from acting as “the crossroads for many of our adversaries around the world, including Iran and Hezbollah.”

Undeterred, Stephanopoulos repeated his question.

“Let me ask the question again,” he said. “What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?”

Rubio defended his previous response, but ultimately provided a single legal justification for the Trump administration’s hostile takeover.

“As far as what our legal authority is… it’s very simple, we have court orders!” Rubio proclaimed. “I don’t know, is a court not a legal authority? The legal authority is the court orders that we have!”

The only court order that could reasonably be construed as supporting the Trump administration’s hostile takeover of Venezuela is the Justice Department’s indictment of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, though nothing in the order would authorize the U.S. government to seize control of a foreign nation, nor due U.S. courts have the authority to do so.