WASHINGTON, Jan. 6– U.S. lawmakers across party lines have voiced opposition or skepticism toward the Trump administration’s military strike against Venezuela over the weekend.
The “drastic military operation by President (Donald) Trump on Venezuelan soil is entirely inconsistent with what his cabinet repeatedly briefed to Congress and goes against the expressed wishes of the American people,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Saturday.
“The Administration consistently misled the American people and their elected representatives by offering three differing and contradictory explanations for its actions,” said Shaheen.
In a post on the social platform X, Andy Kim, Democratic Senator from New Jersey, said, “Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change.
I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.” “Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war,” said Kim.
“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,” Kim added.
Democratic congressman from Colorado Jason Crow, member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, wrote on X: “The Trump Administration repeatedly lied to Congress and the American people about Venezuela.
Over and over, officials testified that this was not about regime change.” “Donald Trump has already done incalculable damage to America’s reputation.
We have to prevent this from spiraling into another nation-building disaster,” said Crow. “This operation is illegal under international law and unconstitutional without prior congressional approval,” said Democratic Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement.
“The United States should not be running other countries for any reason. We should have learned by now not to get involved in endless wars and regime change missions that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans,” said Schatz.
“This war is illegal,” Ruben Gallego, Democratic Senator from Arizona, said on Saturday. “There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”
On Monday, Gallego said in another post on X that Trump briefed oil executives on the Venezuela operation before Congress. “If you were wondering who this war is really for, he just told you: his billionaire oil friends. Not the American people,” he said.
In a statement, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said, “Not only has the Trump administration not sought congressional approval, they did not even notify members of either party in Congress until after the strike had concluded.”
“Our Constitution requires the administration to seek congressional approval, in the form of an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, before they take any further action to commit U.S. troops or take military strikes against Venezuela.”
Republican lawmakers are also among those questioning the move. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie harshly criticized the operation.
“Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for,” Massie wrote Sunday on X.
In a lengthy post on X, Congresswoman from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, “Americans disgust with our own government’s never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going.”
“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong,” said Greene, once a prominent MAGA ally who has publicly broken with Trump in recent months.
“The Trump administration’s briefing on Venezuela posed far more questions than it answered,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X Monday.
“When the United States engages in this kind of regime change and so-called nation building, it always ends up hurting the United States. I left the briefing feeling that it would again,” he said. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
