U.S. lawmakers react after Trump announces Venezuela operation, Maduro arrest

[ad_1] United States leaders reacted early Saturday morning as President Trump confirmed in a single day army strikes in Venezuela and introduced the seize of the nation's chief, Nicolás Maduro, and his spouse.

Mr. Trump mentioned Maduro and his spouse had been flown out of Venezuela and shall be taken to New York. The U.S. Military's Delta Drive, an elite particular forces unit, carried out the operation to seize them, officers instructed CBS Information. The Trump administration notified Congressional leaders concerning the operation solely after it started, Congressional sources instructed CBS Information.

Maduro, 63, has led Venezuela since 2013. His most up-to-date election was disputed by worldwide observers and the U.S. acknowledged opposition candidate Edmundo González because the winner. The U.S. imposed sanctions towards election officers for allegedly rigging the end result, however Maduro was nonetheless sworn in for a 3rd time period in January.

Legal professional Common Pam Bondi mentioned on Saturday morning that Maduro and his spouse have been indicted within the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism expenses. Maduro was beforehand indicted in 2020 on allegations that he and different senior Venezuelan authorities officers collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to site visitors cocaine and weapons to america.

The Justice Division additionally accused Maduro of main a prison group known as Cártel de Los Soles. The Trump administration designated the group as a international terrorist group final 12 months, although some consultants have questioned that characterization . The U.S. has been providing a $50 million reward for data resulting in Maduro's seize.

A CBS Information ballot in November discovered that 70% of Individuals would oppose the U.S. taking army motion in Venezuela, and 75% mentioned the Trump administration would wish Congressional approval. Most surveyed additionally mentioned they didn't see Venezuela as a significant menace to america.

Republicans react Home Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, mentioned he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth after the operation in Venezuela.

"Nicolas Maduro is accountable for the deaths of a whole lot of hundreds of Individuals after years of trafficking unlawful medicine and violent cartel members into our nation — crimes for which he is been correctly indicted in U.S. courts and an arrest warrant duly issued — and in the present day he realized what accountability appears to be like like," Johnson mentioned. "President Trump is placing American lives first, succeeding the place others have failed, and beneath his management america will not permit prison regimes to revenue from wreaking havoc and destruction on our nation."

Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, mentioned he spoke with Rubio and that Venezuela's interim authorities "should now resolve whether or not to proceed the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether or not to behave like a standard nation and return to the civilized world."

"I urge them to decide on correctly," he mentioned.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee mentioned that he additionally spoke with Rubio, who mentioned that Maduro can be delivered to the U.S. Lee additionally mentioned that Rubio "anticipates no additional motion in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody."

Lee added that the operation "probably falls throughout the president's inherent authority beneath Article II of the Structure to guard U.S. personnel from an precise or imminent assault," however didn't supply another particulars.

Vice President JD Vance praised the "courageous particular operators who pulled off a very spectacular operation."

"Maduro is the latest individual to search out out that President Trump means what he says," Vance mentioned. The vice chairman highlighted Maduro's earlier indictments as justification for the operation.

"You aren't getting to keep away from justice for drug trafficking america since you reside in a palace in Caracas," he mentioned.

U.S. Senate Majority Chief John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, launched a press release calling Maduro's seize "an necessary first step to convey him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in america." He mentioned he spoke to Rubio on Saturday morning and was wanting ahead to additional briefings when the Senate returns subsequent week.

Home Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas, drew comparisons to the arrest of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1990.

"It is an important day for Venezuela," Crawford instructed CBS Information in an interview.

"Now we have a president in workplace right here now that is not taking part in round," he mentioned. "What we have to perceive is that if we will have a protected America, that requires a protected neighborhood."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, criticized the operation. Greene is ready to go away Congress on Monday after asserting her shock resignation in November amid a main falling out with Mr. Trump. In a prolonged submit on X, she mentioned the transfer contradicts Mr. Trump's anti-intervention stance and steered the operation had extra to do with regime change than stopping drug trafficking. She requested why the Trump administration had not completed extra to focus on Mexican cartels , and questioned the controversial pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez , who had been sentenced to 45 years in jail for trafficking cocaine into the U.S.

"Individuals disgust with our personal authorities's by no means ending army aggression and help of international wars is justified as a result of we're pressured to pay for it and each events, Republicans and Democrats, at all times maintain the Washington army machine funded and going," Greene wrote. "That is what many in MAGA thought they voted to finish. Boy had been we unsuitable."

Democrats react Democrat lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for performing unilaterally.

Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, mentioned Maduro is a "prison and authoritarian dictator who has oppressed the folks of Venezuela for years," however that Mr. Trump "has the constitutional duty to observe the legislation and defend democratic norms in america."

"The promotion of safety and stability in a area requires extra than simply army power as we painfully found in Iraq and Afghanistan," Jeffries mentioned. "Far too many questions stay unanswered," he added, together with whether or not American troops stay on the bottom in Venezuela and particulars of Mr. Trump's declare that the U.S. will run the Latin American nation till a even handed transition happens.

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, additionally from New York, echoed Jeffries' sentiment by calling Maduro "an illegitimate dictator" however saying that "launching army motion with out congressional authorization and with out a credible plan for what comes subsequent is reckless."

"The concept that Trump plans to now run Venezuela ought to strike worry within the hearts of all Individuals. The American folks have seen this earlier than and paid the devastating worth," Schumer wrote. "The administration should transient Congress instantly on its goals, and its plan to forestall a humanitarian and geopolitical catastrophe that plunges us into one other countless battle or one which trades one corrupt dictator for one more."

Rep. Adam Smith, the highest Democrat on the Home Armed Providers Committee, instructed CBS Information 24/7 that "there isn't any proof by any means this makes America safer."

"This does not appear to have a lot to do with medicine," Smith mentioned, and to him, "it appears what that is about is Trump desires Venezuela's oil."

What additionally issues him is what occurs subsequent, asking: "Is his plan to invade?"

The U.S. has completed that earlier than in locations like Iraq and Libya, he mentioned, and every time, "it at all times ends badly."

"The notion that the U.S. army can attain in and repair that downside with the usage of power? That is what Trump ran towards," Smith mentioned.

Rubio had solely not too long ago assured Congress that intervention in Venezuela wasn't about regime change, Smith mentioned.

"And clearly it is clear that was the aim," he mentioned.

Home Everlasting Choose Committee on Intelligence Rating Member Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, known as on the administration to "instantly transient Congress on its plan to make sure stability within the area and its authorized justification for this resolution."

Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Providers Committee, known as the operation an "unauthorized army assault" and a "sickening return to a day when america asserted the proper to dominate the interior political affairs of all nations within the Western Hemisphere."

"That historical past is replete with failures, and doubling down on it makes it troublesome to make the declare with a straight face that different nations ought to respect america' sovereignty when we don't do the identical," Kaine mentioned.

He mentioned that his bipartisan decision stipulating the U.S. not enter battle with Venezuela with out a clear Congressional authorization shall be up for a vote subsequent week.

"The place will this go subsequent? Will the President deploy our troops to guard Iranian protesters? To implement the delicate ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To grab Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Individuals peacefully assembling to protest his insurance policies?" Kaine mentioned. "Trump has threatened to do all this and extra and sees no want to hunt authorized authorization from folks's elected legislature earlier than placing servicemembers in danger. It's gone time for Congress to reassert its crucial constitutional function in issues of battle, peace, diplomacy and commerce ... We have entered the 250th 12 months of American democracy and can't permit it to devolve into the tyranny that our founders fought to flee."

Sen. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, mentioned that Mr. Trump "rejected our Constitutionally required approval course of for armed battle as a result of the Administration is aware of the American folks overwhelmingly reject dangers pulling our nation into one other battle." Kim additionally accused Rubio and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth of mendacity to Congress after they met with leaders final month about deadly strikes on alleged drug vessels and mentioned the Trump administration's aim was not regime change.

Former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris mentioned on social media Sunday evening that the U.S. operation in Venezuela did not "make America safer, stronger, or extra inexpensive."

"That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator doesn't change the truth that this motion was each illegal and unwise," Harris wrote. "We have seen this film earlier than. Wars for regime change or oil which might be offered as energy however flip into chaos, and American households pay the worth. The American folks don't want this, and they're bored with being lied to. This isn't about medicine or democracy. It's about oil and Donald Trump's want to play the regional strongman. ... The President is placing troops in danger, spending billions, destabilizing a area, and providing no authorized authority, no exit plan, and no profit at residence."

New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took workplace on Thursday, issued a press release saying "unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of battle and a violation of federal and worldwide legislation."

"This blatant pursuit of regime change would not simply have an effect on these overseas, it instantly impacts New Yorkers, together with tens of hundreds of Venezuelans who name this metropolis residence," Mamdani mentioned. "My focus is their security and the protection of each New Yorker, and my administration will proceed to watch the state of affairs and challenge related steerage."

Florida residents cheer operation South Florida, which is residence to a big inhabitants of Venezuelans, noticed celebrations early Saturday . Folks hugged, sang the U.S. and Venezuelan nationwide anthems, and waved flags exterior the group gathering spot El Arepazo.

"President Trump has modified the course of historical past in our hemisphere. Our nation & the world are safer for it," mentioned Florida Republican Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez. "At the moment's decisive motion is that this hemisphere's equal to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a massive day in Florida, the place the vast majority of Venezuelan, Cuban, & Nicaraguan exiles reside. That is the group I symbolize & we're overwhelmed with emotion and hope."