Real News From The Blaze': What Threat Is Hugo Chavez to the U.S.?

President Barack Obama was featured in an interview earlier this week with well-known, Miami-based, Spanish-language broadcast journalist Oscar Haza for “A Mano Limpia.” The segment has been causing quite a stir for in the interview, President Obama says that over the past few years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has not posed a “serious” national security threat to the United States.

High-profile Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney have jumped all over the comment, calling the president naïve.

"It‘s now disturbingly clear that President Obama has been living under a rock when it comes to recognizing the national security threat posed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez," Sen. Rubio said in a statement released the morning after the interview.

"I was stunned by his comments, and shocked by them," Romney wrote in a blog post on his campaign site. "This is Hugo Chavez, this is Venezuela. This is Chavez who has invited Iran in, who has invited Hezbollah. Hezbollah, of course, being a surrogate and a proxy for Iran would potentially have access to weapons that could be used against us."

That said, the question posed to the president Tuesday night was about the public show of solidarity between Chavez and Iran.

On "Real News" Thursday the panel debated whether the outrage that has permeated following the president's remarks is well-placed. Is the president correct? Does Chavez still pose national security concerns for U.S.? Erick Stakelbeck joined the show to discuss whether there is a real threat in Chavez or the distraction he is creating: