Reaction from lawmakers to the Trump administration’s military attack on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro fell largely along party lines, with Republicans praising the operation and Democrats criticizing it as illegal and reckless regime change.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the U.S. military’s action in Venezuela was a “decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives.”
“Nicolas Maduro is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans after years of trafficking illegal drugs and violent cartel members into our country — crimes for which he’s been properly indicted in U.S. courts and an arrest warrant duly issued — and today he learned what accountability looks like,” the Louisiana Republican said in a statement.
But Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, New York Democrat and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Congress must reassert its constitutional role before this escalation leads to “greater instability, chaos, and unnecessary risk to American lives.”
“Let’s be clear. Nicolas Maduro is an illegitimate leader,” Mr. Meeks said. “But using the U.S. military to attempt regime change in a sovereign foreign nation, without approval from Congress, without a defined objective or plan for the day after, and without support from our allies, risks entangling the United States in an open-ended conflict in Venezuela that could destabilize the entire region.”
He said, “This action is also a violation of international law and further undermines America’s global standing.”
When Mr. Trump was asked on Fox News about Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern saying that the military action was unjustified and illegal, the president said that all Democrats do is complain.
“They should say we did a great job with stopping drugs from coming into this country,” he said Saturday.
“Well, these are weak, stupid people, and they’re trying to save themselves from almost destroying our country,” Mr. Trump said of congressional Democrats. “If I didn’t get elected … I don’t think we’d even have a country right now. We were heading down the path of destruction.”
Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, asked that the administration promptly brief Congress on its plan to ensure stability in Venezuela and the region, its legal basis for this action and its plans for any further use of military force. He said the administration is required to seek congressional approval before taking any further action.
“This military action is the next stage in President Trump’s incoherent and arguably illegal Venezuela operation,” he said in a statement. “In recent briefings to Congress, senior administration officials said they were focused on combatting drug trafficking, not regime change, and made clear they had no plan for what would happen if Maduro was removed or overthrown. This was clearly false, and furthermore, a military operation to capture and overthrow a president – even an illegitimate one – is an act of war that must be authorized by Congress.”
Mr. Coons added that “protecting democracy should not be done through illegal means.”
Both Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will face trial in the U.S., as the Venezuelan president has been indicted in the Southern District of New York, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced on social media. Mr. Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the U.S.
Mr. Johnson praised Mr. Trump for “putting American lives first, succeeding where others have failed,” adding that the Trump administration is working to schedule briefings for members as Congress returns to Washington next week.
Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Mr. Trump for the “successful mission,” adding that he will convene a briefing as soon as possible to hear testimony from senior military and law enforcement leaders.
Rep. Rick Crawford, Arkansas Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the operation was a “historic day in the Western Hemisphere, 36 years after the capture of [Panamanian leader] Manuel Noriega, when the U.S showed we will not allow cartels to take over countries in our shared neighborhood.”
The removal of the Venezuelan president amounts to the most significant U.S. intervention in Latin America since invading Panama and capturing Noriega in January 1990.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast, Florida Republican, said the operation is “another win by President Trump to protect our homeland and clean up the backyard of the United States.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York Republican, said that the “bold and decisive action by the Trump administration is a major victory for American security and justice.”
“Under his corrupt and socialist rule, Venezuela’s economy collapsed, forcing over eight million Venezuelans to flee their homeland,” she said in a statement. “It is my hope that the Venezuelan people can now reclaim their nation and finally live in freedom.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno said that Mr. Trump has “changed the course of Latin America for a generation.”
“By acting in America’s self-defense and self-interest to end the narco-terror organization run by Nicolas Maduro, he eliminated an obvious clear and present danger to our nation,” the Ohio Republican said in a statement. “Unlike the inept and incompetent Biden administration, who should have acted when Maduro illegally retained power in 2023, President Trump has shown the world that he will defend and protect American lives.”
Rep. Lisa McClain, chair of the House Republican Conference, said that Mr. Maduro’s “illegitimate regime floods our country with deadly drugs and Americans pay the price.”
“President Trump didn’t look the other way; he acted,” the Michigan Republican said on social media. “That’s what leadership looks like, and it’s how you protect the American people.”
Mr. Trump has waged a war on drug-trafficking campaign against Venezuela, saying that the U.S. loses 300,000 people a year to drugs. Government statistics show the number of drug overdose deaths per year is closer to the 100,000 to 110,000 range.
Democrats on Capitol Hill warned that Mr. Trump is taking the U.S. down a dangerous path with the Venezuela operation and bypassing Congress.
Rep. Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Democrat, said the Trump administration didn’t have the proper authorization to capture Mr. Maduro.
“Congress did not authorize this war. Venezuela posed no imminent threat to the United States. This is reckless, elective regime change risking American lives (Iraq 2.0) with no plan for the day after,” he said on social media. “Wars cost more than trophies.”
Sen. Andy Kim said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change,” adding that they “blatantly lied to Congress.”
“This strike doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government,” the New Jersey Democrat said on social media. “This will further damage our reputation – already hurt by Trump’s policies around the world – and only isolate us in a time when we need our friends and allies more than ever.”
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that this is another unconstitutional war from the president who thinks the Constitution is a suggestion.
“Congress has war powers — but Republican cowards are hiding under their desks while Trump orders an unauthorized attack against Venezuela,” he said in a statement.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat, said that the U.S. “is in the wrong.”
“I fought in some of the hardest battles of the Iraq War. Saw my brothers die, saw civilians being caught in the crossfire all for an unjustified war,” he wrote on social media. “No matter the outcome we are in the wrong for starting this war in Venezuela.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army National Guard veteran, said Mr. Trump’s “reckless and unconstitutional” operations in Venezuela are “not about enforcing law and order because if they were, he wouldn’t hide them from Congress.”
“Maduro was unquestionably a bad actor, but no president has the authority to unilaterally decide to use force to topple a government, thrusting us and the region into uncertainty without justification, a defined end-state or a real plan for preventing the instability that could come next,” the Illinois Democrat said in a statement. “His actions continue putting American troops, personnel and citizens at risk both in the region and around the globe. None of that serves our nation’s interests.”
Rep. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said on social media that “it is in America’s national security interest to deal with the drug caliphate in our backyard, the centerpiece of which is Venezuela.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida Republican, called the operation “this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall.”
“It’s a big day in Florida, where the majority of Venezuelan, Cuban, & Nicaraguan exiles reside,” the Cuban-born lawmaker wrote in a post on social media. “This is the community I represent & we are overwhelmed with emotion and hope.”
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, also a Florida Republican, called for the “rightful leaders of Venezuela to restore freedom and rebuild the nation.”
As the legal authority for the attack was not immediately clear, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the operation in Venezuela, saying the move may have violated international law.
“These developments constitute a dangerous precedent,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Mr. Guterres, said in a statement. “The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect – by all – of international law, including the UN Charter.”
“He is deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected,” he added.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Mr. Trump’s assertion that the U.S would run Venezuela “ludicrous.”
In a Saturday press conference with cabinet members and military officers, the president said that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela until the new government can be put in place.
“No serious plan has been presented for how such an extraordinary undertaking would work or what it will cost the American people,” Mr. Reed said in a statement. “History offers no shortage of warnings about the costs – human, strategic, and moral – of assuming we can govern another nation by force.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, called on Congress to reassert its constitutional role in authorizing war.
“President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere,” Mr. Kaine said in a statement.
The Virginia Democrat previously sponsored a bipartisan war powers resolution to block the Trump administration’s military actions against Venezuela. He said that Democrats will force a vote next week to check Mr. Trump’s military authority.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, said on social media that the operation was more about oil and regime change than drugs.
“It’s not about drugs,” she said. “If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month. It’s about oil and regime change.”
Just weeks ago, Mr. Trump pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. federal court of drug trafficking.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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