Bannon Questions DEA’s "Rock Star” Treatment Of Maduro After Extraction

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This clip aired on January 5, 2026. Transcript begins below and may contain minor errors.

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Here’s what I don’t get. It was a law enforcement action. I think the administration really structured that well. This was DEA. It was special forces ops, right? And they took the guy out. But DEA, this was law enforcement to serve a warrant, to basically arrest the guy and bring him back here to the United States.

And you’re right, David, there’s a lot of precedent for that. And the Cato guys and other guys have done a good job explaining it.

Here’s what I don’t get, and I don’t have the stills up here, but I’m sure most of the audience has seen them, or if Grace and Mo can put them up. But once he got back here, I mean, when he was on the helicopter taking him back to the Iwo Jima, he was in prison sweats. Those are basic prison sweats with the blackout goggles and all that.

The first one that President Trump put up, you know, that looks like a guy that’s disoriented, you know, in the middle of the night, and it’s a snatch and grab.

But once he got to New York, I mean, there are a number of pictures of him with DEA agents. They’re kind of treating him like a rock star. I mean, when he gets on that sally port in the back of that armored vehicle, comes up, it looks like 20 or 30 agents with their phones up, taking memorial videos for the family.

There’s a couple of photos where he’s doing thumbs up. He changes outfits all the time. You know, having had the pleasure of being a guest of the federal government, the Bureau of Prisons, that’s not how it rolls. They’re not sitting there giving you changes of garb. You get the prison sweats, and then you get your prison uniform.

So explain it. You know law enforcement. And a couple of times when he was handcuffed, he’s next to DEA officers where he could get in a chokehold with them. I mean, he wasn’t handcuffed behind himself, which I think is the normal procedure so that he can’t attack an officer.

Walk me through this. Why did it seem like DEA, in particular, was pretty lax with their prisoner, sir?

DAVID ZERE (GUEST): I don’t know the answer to that other than, you know, the Metropolitan Detention Center is known for very poor conditions. People accused of things are sometimes having maggots in the food and harsh conditions.

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Okay, but hang on. Hang on, David. David, hang on. I’m not talking about Metropolitan Detention. That’s a Bureau of Prisons operation. I’m talking about DEA.

I mean, you know the DEA. Posobiec’s going to be on here. But Posobiec is one of the guys down at Gitmo. At Gitmo, when you walk up there, that’s not how they treat you. Okay.

Even I was in a low security, not a camp, but a low security at Danbury. That’s not how they treat you. When you walk in there, it’s all business. There’s no photos. There’s no thumbs up. It’s, you’re not there to, you’re not in charge of yourself, and they make it very evident.

The DEA officers did not do that. They did not make it very evident that this guy was a prisoner. I mean, he’s wishing people a happy New Year. He’s giving thumbs up. They’re taking photos with him like it’s a fraternity.

So what happened? It’s not the MDC. I’m not talking MDC. That’s a Bureau of Prisons operation.

DAVID ZERE (GUEST): He didn’t look too worried there. And part of this security classification, not only in the prison but in the courthouse here, you know, high security designation, 24 hour surveillance, restricting his communication, political activity. Maybe it had something to do with that he’s the most notorious figure to ever come through lower Manhattan, an international criminal.

I can’t explain that. I can’t go further and conject whether, you know, they’re sympathetic to him or empathetic. But yeah, I don’t know.

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