Congressional leaders, emerging Monday from a classified briefing on Venezuela, offered sharply contrasting takes on both the president’s odds of overhauling that country’s government and whether leaving Congress out of the decision to strike was constitutional.
The full House and Senate are expected to be briefed behind closed doors this week on the Jan. 3 operation that extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas and brought him to the United States.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters after Monday night’s classified briefing for a select group of lawmakers that he expects all-members briefings to take place Wednesday.
Then, on Thursday, the Senate will vote on a war powers joint resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would bar U.S. military action in or on Venezuela without congressional authorization, a Kaine aide said.
Senators are also said to be considering another war powers measure that would cover new military actions that could take place in other nations — such as Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Iran or Greenland — all of which President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday could become targets for U.S. military action.
Votes in both chambers this past fall on a series of measures aimed at blocking U.S. military action in the Caribbean did not garner enough support to move forward.
High-level briefing
The briefers on Monday were led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Lawmakers in attendance included House and Senate leaders from both parties and the bipartisan leadership of the Armed Services, foreign affairs and Intelligence committees.
Not invited were leaders of the Judiciary committees, even though the administration has described the Maduro abduction as a law enforcement operation.
The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., respectively, issued a statement Monday evening protesting their exclusion.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges in a New York courtroom on Monday.
In the days since the Jan. 3 operation in Caracas, members of both parties have agreed on two points: that Maduro is no one’s idea of a laudable leader and that the U.S. military operation to extract him was performed admirably and bravely.
But the agreement has ended there.
Role of Congress
One source of disagreement is over whether Trump was right not to notify top lawmakers of the operation beforehand. Some Democrats have said that administration officials misled them by denying military action was coming, or that regime change in Venezuela was a goal.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., when asked if Trump was correct in withholding from Congress advance notice of the military action, said the president “was wise to hold this very close.”
Johnson, for his part, issued lengthy remarks saying Trump had acted within his constitutional authority to wage war.
“Under Article II of the Constitution, the president has the authority, as all presidents do, to deploy military forces to address threats to the U.S. and to enforce U.S. law, and that’s what happened here,” Johnson said. “The War Powers Act states that notification should be made to Congress within 48 hours following the initiation of hostilities,” and Johnson said he had been notified at 4 a.m. on Jan. 3, just hours after the assault was underway.
“There is no requirement for prior congressional approval or prior notification,” Johnson said.
He also said the United States has never accepted that the United Nations charter “limits the use of force solely to responses to armed attacks on us,” and Americans have “always maintained the right to use force to defend our national interest, to preserve the safety of the American people and to prevent ongoing threats to its security.”
Delcy Rodríguez, who was vice president of Venezuela under Maduro, was sworn in Monday as the country’s interim president.
Johnson and Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Trump administration would be monitoring Rodríguez’s behavior as leader.
Johnson suggested that a U.S. quarantine of Venezuelan oil shipments would motivate Rodríguez to take positive steps to address drug trafficking.
“We don’t expect troops on the ground,” Johnson said. “We don’t expect direct involvement in any other way beyond just coercing the new interim government to get that going.”
Mast said the threat of U.S. military action will also sway leaders in Caracas.
After such a demonstration of U.S. force on Jan. 3, Mast said, “sometimes that’s all the control that you need.”
‘Based on wishful thinking’
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking on the Senate floor Monday evening, said the Kaine war powers measure will go to the floor this week.
“If there was ever a time for Republicans to step up to the plate — and stand up not just for the authority of Congress, but for our national security, our safety — that time is now,” Schumer said.
When Schumer came out of the classified briefing, he said the Trump administration’s plan for Venezuela post-Maduro “is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying.” He added: “I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries. In conclusion, 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.”
Mark Satter contributed to this report.
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