‘They lied to our face’: Democrats decry Trump’s military raid on Venezuela | Democrats

Democratic leaders responded angrily Sunday to Donald Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela, criticizing it as an illegal action carried out without necessary congressional approval that would spell disaster for the American people.

Top Democrats appeared on Sunday TV political talk shows to express dismay that lawmakers were given no advance notice of the daring military raid 24 hours earlier.

They cited the action to impeach Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as illegal under the US constitution and ill-advised for the US’s standing in the world, where multiple officials, including the United Nations secretary-general, have accused the US of violating the UN’s founding charter.

“They literally lied to our face,” U.S. senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said on Sunday, referring to a briefing on Venezuela that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave to his chambers last month. “The message they sent was that this was not about regime change… They said it was just a counter-narcotics operation.”

On CNN’s State of the Union, Murphy called the action in Venezuela early Saturday “highly illegal” and added: “There’s no way we can trust this administration.”

According to the US constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires presidents to obtain approval from Congress for military engagements.

But in the case of a dawn bombardment of Venezuela on Saturday and a military landing to kidnap Maduro, not even the “gang of eight” — senior congressional leaders of both major parties who are traditionally consulted on national security matters — were informed of the operation.

“There still hasn’t been a phone call,” said Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. “I am a member of the eight-man gang and I have yet to receive a phone call from anyone in management,” he told CNN.

Despite widespread condemnation of Maduro’s dictatorship and defiance of international law, Democrats nevertheless condemned the Trump administration’s unilateral intervention in the South American country.

Himes called the military operation, which he called an “imperial adventure,” “another example of the utter lawlessness of this administration.” He accused Trump of “setting the stage for disaster” and “not caring about the US Congress.”

Trump and his inner circle have attempted to justify bypassing Congress in Maduro’s takeover by portraying it as a law enforcement and counternarcotics operation rather than a military strike. Top Democrats said it was hypocrisy.

Hakeem Jeffries, the leading Democrat in the House of Representatives, told NBC News’ Meet the Press that the Venezuelan action “was an act of war. This was a military action involving Delta Force, involving the military, apparently involving thousands of soldiers and at least 150 military aircraft.” Rubio denied it was a war.

Trump’s exclusion of Congress significantly improves chances of next week’s bipartisan vote in the US Senate war powers decision. It aims to prevent the administration from initiating any military hostilities against Venezuela without the express approval of Congress.

The debate is privileged, meaning it cannot be stopped by the Republican leadership and only requires a simple majority to pass. He has the support of Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky who has been a thorn in the president’s side on foreign policy.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is another sponsor of the war powers resolution. If the measure gets a majority vote in both chambers, “the president wouldn’t be able to do anything else in Venezuela without the approval of Congress,” he told ABC News This Week.

Schumer portrayed Saturday’s action and Trump’s claim that Venezuela would be governed by the United States for now in apocalyptic terms. “We have learned over the years that the American people have paid the price, both in blood and dollars, for America’s attempt at regime change and nation-building in this way.”

This, he said, is the exact opposite of what Trump promised during the 2024 presidential campaign. “What Donald Trump repeatedly campaigned against was no longer endless wars, and now we are heading towards a war without barriers, without arguments.”

In an interview with CNN, Murphy noted Trump’s comments on Saturday that the United States would temporarily take control of Venezuelan oil. He said this points to the real reason behind overthrowing Maduro: the further enrichment of Trump and his friends.

“Venezuela’s goal is to make money for its friends. If they run Wall Street, the oil industry, they can make a lot of money from Venezuela,” he said.

“Once again you see that this president’s foreign policy, the invasion of Venezuela, the overthrow of Maduro, is about making his own people filthy rich. It has nothing to do with American national security.”