CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Bizarrely Claims Dictator Is Offering US an ‘Olive Branch’ as He Takes Americans Hostage

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer suggested on Friday that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was extending an “olive branch” toward the United States in the same breath that he revealed Maduro was taking American hostages.

Blitzer teased a segment about the tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela at the top of the 11 a.m. hour by saying:

President Nicolás Maduro extends an olive branch to the United States as we learn that several Americans have now been detained in Venezuela.

During the actual segment with CNN’s Sean Lyngaas, the pair dove into the issue further:

BLITZER: Also happening now, a U.S. official tells CNN that Venezuelan security forces have detained at least five Americans in recent months. This comes as tensions between the two nations keep building and building. The official said the Trump administration believes the Maduro regime is detaining Americans to help build leverage against the United States. Here with me now in The Situation Room is CNN cybersecurity reporter Sean Lyngaas. Sean, what do we know first of all about these detentions and what is Venezuela saying?

LYNGAAS: Yeah Wolf, there’s been a series of detentions over the last several months. We’re reporting at least five Americans, and the problem here is that the U.S. officials are very concerned that Maduro’s government could use this as leverage in the ongoing tensions between the two countries. We’ve seen that with Russia, where the Russian government had wrongfully detained many Americans and then use that to try to free Russian prisoners here in the U.S.. And Nicolás Maduro may be using this as a bargaining chip as these tensions rise, as the U.S. officials continue to try to pressure Venezuela. Let’s take a listen to what President Maduro said regarding this this week about his willingness to talk.

MADURO: We must start to speak seriously with the facts in hand. The U.S. Government knows that because we have said it a lot to their interlocutors, that if they want to speak about an agreement to battle drug trafficking, we are ready to do that. If they want Venezuela’s oil, Venezuela is ready to accept U.S. investments like those of Chevron, when, where, and how they want make them.

LYNGAAS: So it’s interesting timing, Wolf, that Maduro said this this week after, you know, another series of U.S. strikes in the Caribbean, outside of Venezuela, but also after a CIA drone strike against a facility in Venezuela. The U.S. pressure is seeming to push Maduro to be willing to talk to the U.S. officials.

BLITZER:  What do we know about these five Americans who have been detained, held by the Venezuelans?

LYNGAAS: We’re working on getting more reporting on that, Wolf, but what we know right now is at least one of them, he is the son of a musician, a former musician in the U.S.. He’s from around the New York area and he was traveling in the region and had intended to come back to see his family right before the holidays, so really unfortunate situation there. The State Department is being quiet on this right now. I think they’re behind the scenes trying to scramble to figure out what’s going on and try to contact the families. But we should have more on that.

Watch above via CNN.