Pence: Trump deserves the ‘gratitude of all who cherish freedom‘ for operation to remove Maduro

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday that President Trump was right to the U.S. military to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela.

"Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump and the professionalism of the United States armed forces, Maduro is gone. His grip on Venezuela has been broken, and a long-suffering people now have a historic opportunity to reclaim their freedom and rebuild their nation," Pence wrote.

"For years, the United States rightly recognized that Maduro was a dictator with no legitimate claim to rule," he added.

Pence said Maduro "stole elections, jailed political opponents, silenced the free press and turned the machinery of government into a criminal enterprise."

He also said that Trump deserves "the gratitude of all who cherish freedom for taking bold and historic action to end this socialist catastrophe."