there will be a new election in north carolina. it will start anew including primaries. but justice is being done. good night from new york. trish: venezuela socialist dictator nicolas maduro ex--intelligence chief is reportedly saying maduro is courting hezbollah. coming up, i talk exclusively with one of the daughters of a u.s. hostage who has been held captive there for 450-plus days. his life is being threatened. you will hear from him yourself tonight. the trump administration on high alert with vice president mike pence announcing he'll travel to colombia at the request of the colombian president.

he'll be extra juicing with south american leaders on how to bring freedom to the area. newly discovered evidence as to where and who representative ilhan omar's sympathies lie. find out who sponsored some of her recent trips to latin america in an attempt to push an anti-american agenda. jussie smollett charged with filing a false police report. "trish regan primetime" starts now. breaking right now. socialist dictator nicolas maduro desperately trying to barricade himself and his entire country from the free work as the days of his regime dwindle. in less than 28 hours.

an estimated 1 million venezuelans will attempt to cross the border to colombia to access much-needed food and medical supplies. i can confirm tonight that maduro's military forces are trying to block juan guaido, the one the venezuelan constitution recognizes as the interim president from even getting close to that border. you have a country in which the people are suffering. you have a country in which we'll are dying. they are dprieg lack of medicine, lack of water, lack of food. this man who says he cares refuses to allow international aid in while denying he has any kind of crisis there? he's characterizing international help for the population as an invasion.

the big question tonight, will the military openly back maduro saturday? an arrest? god forbid, hurt anyone who tries to cross that border to get through for their child. joining me right now, a venezuelan opposition leader who has been targeted by maduro. marie a machada. welcome back. we are getting towards intimidation tactics ma during oh is employing to physically prevent people from crossing the bored and getting the aid. what can you tell us. >> i want to be very clear. there is no way that in our fight for freedom, there noise

journey back. as bad as it sounds, no way. as we speak, thousands of courageous citizens are moving to our border with brazil and colombia. they are overcoming obstacles and being threatened. because as you have said, this is the matter of a society that's desperate because of a lack of food and medicine. whatever nicolas maduro chooses to do tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be a milestone in the advance in the collapse of the regime. if he blocks the aid that you mentioned, or he dares to attack officials want to go bring aid to venezuela, we'll advance to a higher level of trouble.

if he gives in and the food and medicine come into venezuela, it will be a storied victory in this fight. >> it will be very good for the opposition. trish: but then what happens? if the aid comes in, i would say bring it in because i care about my people and i don't want them to starve and not have medicine. why not take it? but he's preventing that and sees it as an invasion which would i remind the world tonight it is not. it is aid, it's food, it's medicine that's badly needed. if he says i will take it, well, how do you get from that to juan guaido officially being able to call for elections? >> because we have to understand that this is not a conventional dictatorship.

we are facing a criminal state. that means we are willing to do anything to stop venezuela from moving ahead. so what we need to put in place is more and more coordinated pressure abroad we face. that's exactly what's happening. maduro every day is more ice late. and the criminal structure is fracturing and dividing. we are moving ahead to keep on with the pressure, blocking the illegal funding of his regime receives and uses for repression and corruption. and medicine. i want to say to the american people. on behalf of my fellow citizens, thank you for your generosity. and solidarity. as well as support, bipartisan support of the u.s. congress from the administration that has

spoken clearly about the need to get rid of socialism, corruption, in our hemisphere. it's much more -- millions of lives in venezuela are at stake right now. but it also has to do with the national security of you americans in your own country. trish: absolutely. you say that so well. that's very true. let's keep talk maria because there is a lot happening the next couple days, next couple weeks, the next couple months. that was an important segue. she mentioned the concerns about the western hemisphere. breaking tonight, a major blow for nicolas maduro. venezuela's former spy chief is turning against the dictator calling him corrupt and accusing him of drug trafficking and courting the terror group

hezbollah. the links between maduro and hezbollah, it's nothing new to the viewers of this program. we talked about this. i told about it, and here is what secretary of state mike pompeo told us recently. do you have concerns venezuela runs the risk of turning into a no man's land where you have these bad actors, including some with links to hezbollah that could be more of a threat because they are in our hemisphere? >> i'm glad you brought that up. the iranians are impacting the people of venezuela and throughout south america. we have an obligation to take down that risk for america. trish report ex-intel chief of maduro confirming that. general bob scales joins us. you have got all the bad guys

down there, hezbollah, the cubans, the russians which are now sending humanitarian aid. he'll take it from the russians but not from us. so you have got drug traffickers. you name it. what is the reason why we care about this country aside from the humanitarian aspect of it. we hate to see people suffer so close to home. what else the reason we should care? >> where do you start, trish? we are worried about yemen being a launching pad for hezbollah and other terrorist groups. yemen is 6,000 miles away. venezuela is a terrorist lily pad thats 900 miles from our border. the cue brants facilitator -- the cubans are the facilitators of this terrorist cell.

they have been trying incite terror in our country for 60 years. i did a study on the national security implications of the border, and they are going back and forth across our southern border all the time. here we are as a country ringing our hands over the threat of middle eastern terrorists flying into our country when cuba and russia are actually building a terrorist infrastructure, not 900 mile s from the our border and maduro is the one facilitating it. trish: they were able to launch two terrorist attack in argentina in the 1990s. they since migrated to venezuela. let me ask you this. nicolas maduro is kind of cut off. he's shut off from anyone that cares about democracy and

liberty and freedom and justice. yet he's hanging on. so what happens over the next couple days? in 28 hours people will have the opportunity to get that aid. juan guaido, the man we recognize as president in the u.s. is saying that aid is coming in. it's coming in or else. what's the or else? >> well, trish, it's all about the venezuelan military. it's all about the military, and the ability of the cuban national security forces to controlled the military, both rank and file and the generals. three things may happen saturday, two of which are bad. number one is maduro is able to completely block this movement to the border. number two, god forbid that his soldiers open fire on their own citizens. that's a game change. number 3, this ends in a fizzle where both sides are not able to

come to closure on the border. none of this is good for maduro. particularly with the world -- with the global media, with their cameras focused in on these bridges. god forebird it should -- god forbid it should result in violence. trish: vladimir putin says he's okay with another cuban missile crisis scenario happening again. knowing that this area is so close to home for us, 3-hour flight from miami, and knowing the russians have sent significant scary planes there in the past. how are you thinking about vladimir putin and his relationship with us and venezuela right now? >> remember the horrible situation in 1961 with the cuban missile crisis in here is some numbers for you. cue banls 10 million,

venezuela's 5 million. cuba only exports sugar. venezuela sits on top of the largest oil reserves in the world. if you want russia to have political, economic and human capital in south america to threaten us, you don't have to look any further away than venezuela. trish: general scales, thank you very much. far left democrat ilhan omar who made some very anti-semitic comments is entangled in another controversy. we have learned that miss omar recently traveled to latin america with a group that supports nicolas maduro's socialist brutal dictatorship. later this hour, a major update on the american hostages being held captive in venezuela. the daughter of one of the

hostages will share exclusively with "trish regan primetime" a report she just received on her father. >> delays rumor they are going to do a kidnap operation. when you retire will you or will you just be you, without the constraints of a full time job? you can grow your retirement savings with pacific life and create the future that's most meaningful to you. which means you can retire, without retiring from life. having the flexibility to retire on your terms. that's the power of pacific. ask your financial professional about pacific life today.

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trish: reports surfacing congressional freshman once woman traveled to latin america just a year before her election. it raises questions why this freshman is sitting on the house

foreign affairs committee, especially when the group omar traveled with is vowing undo u.s. policy in latin america. now we know where some of of her questionable comments come from. i am all for diverse tu of opinion. we need that. but this woman is one of the more anti-u.s. policy makers and she has a big job on the foreign relations committee. is that appropriate? joining me, mr. doug schoen. like i said, i'm all for diversity of opinion. but i'm starting to get a little suspect of her and like i said, who is she look out for? right now i don't feel like it's the u.s. >> i would agree. i reviewed her statement and

actions. hard to say that she is standing up for american interests when she is supporting maduro. she is very hostile to israel. made an anti-semitic statement about aipac that she had to apologize for. she is anti-u.s. policy vis-a-vis cuba. she isn't work for the kind of people you and i relate to which is the vast majority of american people. trish: i consider myself a pretty objective person and i look at what's happening in venezuela with 90% of the people living in poverty and kid starving and people not having access to medicine and hospitals. i don't know how you can look at that and say we shouldn't care. from a humanitarian perspective say she is a nice human being

and you should care. terrorists are being courted by the likes of maduro in venezuela. i don't know how you don't look at that and say we need to care and should care. she would rather keep this brutal socialist dictator who is killing people. >> i agree. as i told you before i wrote a back called "the threat closest to home" about venezuela. it's only gotten worse in that time. to me the worst thing is representative omar doesn't appear to support our efforts to provide humanitarian aid. she says we are supporting a coup. my attitude is if people need food and water and medicine and maduro blocks it, we should

support a region-widest to insure people who are scarfing and people who are ill get the help they need. it's basic human decency. trish: she has a pretty big job on the foreign relations committee. >> she does. trish: do you think nancy pelosi should be reviewing that one? >> i think she should remove her forth with. i don't question her ability to hold her seat, she was democratically elected. but there is no reason why she should be on the foreign relations committee with opinions and actions that are at best abhorrent. get her off. you know? trish: i'm sure you can find someone a little more qualified with more experience that cares

more about u.s. strategic interests and has a little more heart and humility. >> she appears to lack the values that you and i and i think the vast majority of the viewers hold. i, too, tolerate a diversity of opinion. i encourage it. but this woman represents anti-american i am as far as i can see. trish: nicolas maduro's ex-spy chief admitting the regime is actively courting the terrorist group hezbollah. we cannot let a terrorist in our backyard. i'll explain with my report straight ahead. ♪

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trish: take a look at this. just breaking, coming in to us today. video people trying to make their way toward the border. the mariara is in central venezuela. they need to get to the border toward colombia to get the humanitarian aid and food so many of them need. nicolas maduro sent his military out to block them. tonight a major player in the maduro regime is announcing his support for juan guaido, the opposition. he admitted hugo chavez and

nicolas maduro courted drug traffickers, and alarmingly, hezbollah. i reported on the connection to latin america and hezbollah 15 years ago when i reported from paraguay. it was from this wild and lawless place that the -- the aroundor attacks on the jewish center took place. massive amounts of money was transferred from that triborder region to hezbollah. at that time it was the largest source of funding for hezbollah outside of iran. now that number has quadrupled to $400 million.

any time you have a criminal regime in charge, you run the risk of bringing in bad guys. secretary of state, mike pompeo, confirming hezbollah's presence just recently. tonight we are learning from the man who ran venezuela's intelligence agency for more than a decade, that venezuela is a place where hezbollah is active and hiding out in and could launch logistical operations. it seems we need to be focusing on venezuela. we don't want hezbollah and terrorists. we don't want russia, china, iran, drug traffickers there, so close to us. right? here to react to all of this.

presidential historian, doug wead. it's so good to see you. there always part of history called the monroe doctrine. i think they almost knew way back when that we could have problems like we are seeing today. >> very true. trish, thank you for the leadership you are providing in this whole issue. it's remarkable how myopic the media is. we cover a fire in california or snowstorm in new england. the lif life and death struggles around the world we often miss. john quincy adams developed the monroe doctrine for pot monroe. it said to the empires around the world, handoff the western hemisphere. it announced to the emerging countries, the united states

will protect you. and all through the years it has been invoked in crises like this. it was evoked in the spanish-american war and george w. bush when he invaded panama. he said handoff the western hemisphere. and the russians. trish: you have vladimir putin trying to call our bluff on this, what he thinks is a bluff, but i know it's not. you have vice president pence heading to bogota. he's sitting down with latin american leaders to talk about how the region is able to protect the people of venezuela. this is one the administration cares about and has been vocal on including the president himself. even in the state of the union. knowing all that.

why isn't vladimir putin saying it's a repeat of the cuban missile crisis all over again. >> that's pretty scary. the tu-160s fly twice the speed of sound and carry nuclear weapons. i was with the president and was interrupted by a phone crawl from a zwren tina. consider from argentina. the puzzle for a lot of people is why won't maduro go? they won't go because power is addictive. abraham lincoln once said a man can handle adversity easily. but if you want to test his power, give him power. that's why we celebrate george washington. he walked away from power.

that's the american way. we don't understand the dictators who hold on to it. trish: he's supposed to be helping these people. but socialism, i believe fundamentally as an economic system simply does not work and is not sustainable. and you run the risk in places like venezuela of getting a lot of corruption in there. you have got a guy hanging on for dear life. he went go, but his people are starving in the streets. and a million people are expected to cross that border into columbia for food and medicine. >> this is reaching a climax that could be very dangerous. it could go wrong. trish: what do you mean it could go wrong. >> i was talking about how power is addictive.

maduro has his people in position. not all of them have gone over to the other side. he could have his troops open fire. it could be very ugly and very dangerous. trish: well, then he's really inviting a lot of problems. >> i wouldn't test donald trump if i were him. trish: he cares, he does. and he keeps saying all options are on the take. mike pence is there in bogota, talking to all the leaders of latin america. no one there outside of cuba likes maduro. doug, it's good to see you. actor jussie smollett is appearing before a judge today on charges he staged his own attack. niger innis how smollett did a disservice to the african-american community.

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[♪] >> jussie smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. how could an individual who has been embraced by the chicago of chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false claims. to make things worse, the accusations within this phoney attack received national attention for weeks. celebrities. news commentators and presidential candidates weighed in on something that was choreographed by an acros -- byn actor. trish: some pretty harsh word there in brutal condemnation of jussie smollett's faked attack in the city of chicago. he was charged with falsifying a police report. he became a suspect in his own

hate crime. niger innis joins us. what's your reaction? >> i'm so proud of superintendent johnson. he was spot on. i wish young men of all color, but particularly young black men and brown men in chicago had fathers like this man. he's a good leader that chicago desperately needs. what smollett did is a disgrace to the history of black americans in our country it's a disgrace to the history of real racism. not this nonsense lie that was done not for some cause, it was done so he could fill his bank account with more money from

this "empire" show. i think the judge should throw the book at him with this kind of felony. he would be liable to do three years in prison. i urge the judge to offer three years in prison for six months in prison along with community service to various african-american churches and that he has to go to a conference that i'm going to next week, and i invited you to, trish, because the foreign minister -- guaido's foreign minister is supposed to come to cpac. trish: carlos vecchio. he has been on the show a bunch. he's a great guy and quite a freedom fighter there. >> i am so supportive of guaido and the people of venezuela. and support the countries of

brazil and colombia are so giving. trish: he want him to go to cpac. >> i want smollett to come to cpac to apologize to the thousands of conservatives who love the president and apologize to them for besmirching their name as part of this hustle scam of smollett. if you want to do the community service, apologize to the cpac audience, and apologize to the country. trish: you know what i hate, there is a branding, if you would, of anybody that thinks differently than those of the left. and they assume. this, that or the other, they try and paint anybody who is a donald trump supporter into being an ogre, whether you are a

racist, anti-semite, misogynist, you name it. this story played out in such a way that the media eigh ate it d they wanted to believe what jussie was saying. >> they wanted to be fooled. they want the fantasy that donald trump support percent are ignorant racist homophobic, et cetera, et cetera. trish: here he is telling "good morning america" this. watch. >> i tell the truth. and that's it. because it's the truth. then they became like oh, how can you doubt that. how do you not believe that? it's the truth. then it became a thing like oh,

it's not necessarily that you don't believe that this is the truth. you don't even want to see the truth. trish: he's a heck of an actor. he's now telling the entire "empire" cast, i didn't do it. >> he's a self-delusional, self-hating person that quite frankly -- one of the things that's disappointing in addition to this horrific individual is the deafening silence of most of so-called activist groups that rallied around him initially. trish: it's making them look bad. bernie sanders won't say nicolas maduro is making socialism look bad. coming up, a major update on the

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trish: socialist dictator nicolas maduro threatening to

shutter venezuela's border colombia tonight, less than 24 hours before the man venezuela's constitution recognizes as the interim president of that country, juan guaido, plans to move much-needed humanitarian aid across the tbhoard defines of nicolas maduro. he doesn't want it. the aid operation is set for this saturday. and it has extremely high stakes for the sick and starving people of venezuela, and for the five american hostages that have been wrongfully held by maduro's forces for 450 days. as we have been reporting. the five men as well as the green cardholder were employed by citgo, and they have flown from texas to caracas in what was supposed to be routine business meetings when they were captured and put in prison.

yesterday their hearing was delayed for the 13th time. i received a voicemail from the family of one of the american hostages, alirio, zambrano. he speaks in code word because he's being rinsed in on. when he says hotel, he's referring to prison. >> they want to do a cleanup operation in the basement of the hotel. so you need to let the right people know that the rumor is that there is going to be a cleanup operation if things go south here in the basement. ciao. trish: the basement meaning jail. he sent this message to his daughter alexandria saying if

things go south this saturday, maduro's forces may do a quote clean-up operation meaning they may harm them or worse. joining me now, zambrano's daughter. i can't even express how sorry i feel for you and all the family members who had loved ones there for 450 days. but now he's come to a head. you have a lot of events happening saturday. and you are worried and your dad is worried. walk us through with that message meant. >> we are terrified. all six families. when i received that voicemail. i just stood still. i didn't know what else to do. then i said i have to share this with every contact i have. if something happens to him on

saturday, i want to no, i did everything i could. trish: what is it he's worried about? what does he mean cleanup operation? >> trish, he's been hurt already. he has been tortured. i can't even imagine what he could possibly mean and i don't want to think about it. trish: i don't want to put you in a position of that. you feel time is running out and you need to come forward. i can't think of american hostages being held for that amount of time. over a year and a half. five americans and the former ceo of citgo who had a green card to work here. they thought they were going there for a weekend business meeting. >> they went down there for a quick business meeting, thought they were coming back object tuesday.

they were forced to go the week of thanksgiving. the next thing we know our parents' names are on the news. why are they being thrown in a basement with no due process. trish: i spoke to delcy rodriguez says what hostages. she said your dad being held there against his will with no hearing. she says you have been told lies. these are not americans. and i thought as i said last night on this show. i said you tell that to their families. alexandria, is your dad an american. >> absolutely. my dad went to lsu. we have been on the gulf coast for 20 years. i have an army of people, the whole gulf coast behind me.

we have been a part of this community forever and we are proud americans. trish: what's your message to president trump tonight? >> to president trump, to guaido, to everybody, can you assure us they will be okay this weekend? can you alleviate this fear? the whole world is waiting to see what happens saturday. and we have six of our family members. my dad is down there and has no idea what's going to happen to him. i need some assurance they will be okay and frankly let go. trish: thank you. we are all saying a prayer. i have a big announcement after the break. from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

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has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today. trish: monday i will be live from colombia. vice president mike pence will be my special guest on this program, so i hope you tune in

or all our special coverage. tomorrow is a big one, too. we are holding a big benefit concert on the border in venezuela. we'll have full coverage. see you tomorrow. [♪] kennedy: breaking news, empire actor jussie smollett now out on a $100,000 bond after his arrest on accusations he staged his own attack. it's a case that has confused, saddened and disgusted many americans. but smollett's lawyers claim he is innocent. calling the charges quote outrageous. this is jussie's mugshot after he turned himself in to police this morning. he's charged with filing a false police report which is a fell think that