Interim Dude is not yet Interim, will be as soon as guy who isn't vacant becomes vacant and then Interim Dude can be Interim Dude ... or something like that

Elliott Abrams - If you didn't know better, you might be fooled to believing the guy is actually thinking

A press conference with U.S. special envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, regarding Juan Guaido seems to have produced more questions than answers.

Abrams went on record to say the Venezuelan National Assembly passed a resolution that essentially goes against the country’s constitution. He says they voted for the 30-day term of the self-declared interim president, opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido, to start once President Nicolas Maduro steps down.

In a press conference that had reporters scratching their heads, Abrams, who is now United States special envoy to Venezuela, told journalists that Guaido’s 30-day interim presidency that was set to end by Feb. 23, hasn’t actually begun and won’t until President Nicolas Maduro is out of office.

“The 30-day end to his interim presidency starts counting, uhm, because he’s not in power, that’s the problem. Maduro is still there,” said Abrams to reporters at the White House, effectively admitting that the man has zero authority in Venezuela.

The U.S.-backed Guiado declared himself interim president Jan. 23 with the expectation that he’d be able to call snap elections within 30 days, as permitted by invoking Article 233 of Venezuela’s constitution. However, the plan was foiled, as well as the U.S.-backed cyber attack on Venezuela’s electrical system that sent most of the country into darkness just under two weeks ago.

Guiado, not able to muster an overthrow of democratically elected Maduro, and now that the 30-day time frame is over, he and opposition allies in the National Assembly, in contempt of court for nearly two years, have passed a resolution saying that his interim status won’t start until Maduro is removed.

“The (Venezuelan) National Assembly has passed a resolution that states that the 30-day period of interim presidency will not start ending, or counting, until the day Maduro leaves power. So the 30 days doesn't start now, it starts after Maduro leaves. That’s a resolution of the Venezuelan assembly,” said Abrams to the gathered journalists.

A reporter challenged Abrams and the National Assembly’s constitutional jurisdiction to change the rules of the game midway.

“When did they do that?” asked a journalist.

“Ahh about, they did that roughly a month ago,” responded Abrams, somewhat confounded.

“So when he took the mantle of the presidency that (resolution) wasn't there, so that’s post facto. … That’s like saying I was elected president for four years and two years into it you change the rules so that your term hasn't even started yet,” said the same journalist.

Abrams retorted to the journalist that he didn’t get to vote “because you’re not in the national assembly.”

The U.S. official said that the assembly found the move “constitutional” and called the presidency “vacant” until “Maduro goes.”

A journalist continued to question Abrams, “so he (Guido) isn’t interim president?”

“He is interim president but he’s not able to exercise the powers of the office because Maduro is still there,” responded Abrams. “I think it’s logical.”

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