Coverage of the ongoing unrest in Venezuela, in the wake of dictator Nicolas Maduro’s claim to re-election via rampant fraud, was mixed at best, and left out a very significant detail: the various Biden policy failures that directly led to this moment in history.

Watch ABC’s very brief report in its entirety:

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

7/30/24

6:45 PM

DAVID MUIR: We are also tracking the images coming in from Venezuela tonight, where the government says Nicolas Maduro has been re-elected to a third six-year term, although full voting data has not been released. The U.S. tonight and other South American nations are expressing concern and have not recognized the results. Tonight, demonstrators continue to take to the streets. Maduro has presided over the collapse of Venezuela’s economy. More than 7 million people have fled that country. 

After devoting 5 minutes of top story time to their ongoing worship of Kamala Harris, ABC could only muster 23 seconds for this significant developing story. But that’s 23 more than NBC could muster, because they had to make time for men’s gymnastics. 

CBS, on the other hand, sent correspondent Lilia Luciano to Caracas, and offered up a fuller report in a more appropriate time slot closer to the top of the newscast- even if the story wasn’t all that substantive.

Missing from the reports: the fact that the Biden administration directly enabled this election fraud by foolishly giving Maduro sanctions relief in exchange for the promise of free and fair elections. Furthermore, Biden returned to Maduro his “narconephews” and notorious regime bagman Alex Saab in a pair of prisoner swaps. This context was clearly missing from these reports.

Exit clip: watch as Reihan Salam make noted Biden-Harris cheerleader Ana Navarro as he mentions the sanctions relief as a factor that enabled Maduro to steal the election.

WATCH as @reihan makes @ananavarro squirm uncomfortably over Biden-Harris Venezuela policy failure (sanctions relief in exchange for election guarantees that never happened) that enabled Maduro's tyrannical election fraud: pic.twitter.com/sfLdNUm5ty

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 30, 2024

Click “expand” to view the transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on CBS Evening News on Monday, July 29th, 2024:

CBS EVENING NEWS

7/29/24

6:33 PM

NORAH O’DONNELL: Breaking night: Chaos in Caracas, Venezuela. The political turmoil unleashed after Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the South American country’s presidential election. There are widespread accusations of fraud with the U.S. and other countries casting doubt on the results. CBS's Lilia Luciano is the only U.S. Network correspondent inside Venezuela.

LILIA LUCIANO: Thousands of demonstrators are taking to the streets across Venezuela tonight to protest what they say is an attempt by Nicolás Maduro to steal the country’s election.

There’s a lot of teargas that’s been deployed by police. We are seeing a group of protesters. We can’t figure out how many, but perhaps there are a few hundred there. A few dozen. [Unint] There are some of them throwing back the canisters that are being thrown at them. The police are assembling in large numbers around here to contain that. 

Venezuela strongman Nicolas Maduro has claimed victory for a third term. Despite exit polls showing challenger Edmundo Gonzalez ahead by more than 30 points. The international community has joined those calls for transparency, as they did in Maduro’s last disputed election win in 2018.

ANTONY BLINKEN: We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.

LUCIANO: We are seeing a group of protesters on the front of the line throwing the canisters of tear gas back at police. There's a lot of police motorcycles here confronting them. You see a lot of tear gas. The group of protesters back there, some of them told us that they assembled peacefully. That's when police arrived, and that’s when all of this confrontation started taking place. Norah.

O’DONNELL: Wow, Lilia Luciano. Thank you for your reporting.