President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel held a news conference on Wednesday to announce new crime data.

Washington

President Trump, joined by FBI Director Kash Patel, announced new crime statistics in the Oval Office, highlighting approximately 28,000 arrests under 'Operation Summer Heat.' The statistics, which have not yet been independently verified, were presented as evidence of significant law enforcement activity across areas such as violent crime, organized crime, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism.

The press conference also included political commentary, with Trump and Patel contrasting their results with those of the previous administration. Additionally, the discussion touched on reports that the Trump administration had authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela, though it was clarified that such authorizations do not confirm specific operations and remain highly classified.

Trump, FBI director speak to reporters about new crime statistics

Welcome in to CBS News 24-7. Right now, President Trump is in the Oval Office alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, announcing new crime data for his second term. So far, the Bureau reports it made around 28,000 arrests as part of what the President called Operation Summer Heat. So joining us now is CBS News National Security Contributor Sam Vinograd. With more on this, Sam, what did we learn here? What is the significance of this announcement? Well, there really seem to be two goals from this press conference, which is still ongoing. The first was to run through a long list of law enforcement statistics, and candidly, some very positive statistics. We have not yet had the opportunity to independently verify them, but if we do rely on Director Patel and the President for the veracity of those statistics, they paint a very positive picture of the work that the law enforcement community is doing across a range of issues, violent crime, transnational organized crime, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, and more. So there was a law enforcement objective here to really show the incredible work of the law enforcement community. There also seemed to be a bit of a political objective. During the press conference, Director Patel and President Trump oftentimes criticized the Biden administration's failure to get to the kind of numbers that they've laid out today. So it looks like a law enforcement objective and a political objective in this press conference. So let's talk about the New York Times. It's reporting that the Trump administration has authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela. So what does this actually mean? Well, we don't know what it actually means because covert action programs are the most classified in the US government or oftentimes restricted to a small group of people. I will say this, covert action programs can be used to consider options for regime change, to get rid of a leader that the United States feels is detrimental to global security or US interests. Covert action can be used as well to destroy certain infrastructure and or to try to influence individuals close to a leader that the United States views as hostile to the United States. So there are a range of options for what this covert action authority may be used for. But I do wanna stress the may. The New York Times has not reported, nor have we seen other reporting, that President Trump has authorized the use of covert action within Venezuela. The authority is sometimes granted prior to an operation starting, just so that the CIA and other covert action entities have the legal framework necessary to begin to operate if they need it. All right, Samantha Vinograd. Samantha, thank you so much.

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