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Eric and Eliot return from Thanksgiving to dissect the revelations from the Washington Post about the double-tap strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in September. They discuss whether the strike was a war crime, the resignation of SOUTHCOM Commander Admiral Alvin Holsey, and the administration’s larger objectives in Venezuela. They also address the Department of Defense IG report on Signalgate, and explain why it does not constitute a ‘complete exoneration’. They conclude with a discussion of the Witkoff-Kushner “mission to Moscow”, the corruption crisis in Ukraine that ousted Presidential Chief of Staff Yermak, and the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Trump cronies lining up to do business deals in Russia once the Ukrainians can be forced into submission.
Show Notes:
Former White House Counsel Bob Bauer on the Venezuela boat strikes
Wall Street Journal Report on Witkoff & Kushner’s Plans for Peace
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
Correction (December 9, 2025, 3:25 p.m. EST): At 33:54, one of the hosts suggests that Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator, is still alive and incarcerated in the United States; in fact, Noriega died in Panama City, Panama in 2017.
