by Thomas Breen
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro condemned the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuela’s president Saturday as an action that “threatens global order,” is “a fundamental violation of the Constitution,” and could drag out into another “endless conflict” abroad.
She offered that critique in an email press release sent out at 2:16 p.m., as details emerge about a pre-dawn raid authorized by President Donald Trump that saw U.S. military forces capture Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in the South American country’s capital.
Top Trump administration officials have said that the Venezuelan strongman — who was indicted in 2020 in Manhattan for “narco-terrorism” and drug trafficking — is being taken to New York to face new criminal charges. Trump, meanwhile, has said that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until that country completes a transition of power.
DeLauro, along with other top Democrats, have lambasted the president for side-stepping Congress, which the Constitution grants “the responsibility of authorizing major military actions that could have severe repercussions for American interests.”
“The full consequences of this act of war will not be known for some time, and they may require putting American boots on the ground in Venezuela, as the President has said he was prepared to do,” DeLauro continued. “The American people do not want to be dragged into another endless conflict distracting from the rising cost of living and the affordability crisis. Whatever happens next, the responsibility will be squarely with President Trump and his contempt for the Constitution and for Congress.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was similarly critical of the Trump administration’s actions in an email press release sent out at 11:20 a.m.
“If we’re starting another endless war, with no clear national security strategy or need, count me out,” Blumenthal said. “Maduro is a cruel criminal dictator, but President Trump has never sought approval from Congress for war as the Constitution requires – and our military deserves. We’ve seen several Administrations lead us into conflicts without objectives or timelines and with disastrous consequences. President Trump has also articulated no clear end game to prevent further chaos, violence, and bloodshed in Venezuela. The American people deserve—and Congress should demand—facts and clarity.”
See below for DeLauro’s statement in full.
DeLauro Statement on President Trump’s Attempted Regime Change in Venezuela
President Trump’s unilateral decision to attempt a regime change operation in Venezuela by using military force to capture Nicolas Maduro and declaring, ‘we will run the country’, threatens global order and is a fundamental violation of the Constitution, which gives Congress the responsibility of authorizing major military actions that could have severe repercussions for American interests.
America’s unprecedented global strength and prosperity was built on this principle of restraining military force through democratic bodies like Congress. President Trump has shredded this principle, and along with it has destroyed American credibility and emboldened our adversaries to act with similar aggression. This new foreign policy that President Trump and his advisors have used to justify this act of war, including invoking the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine as a justification for America to do whatever it pleases in the Western Hemisphere, is the exact same reasoning that China would use to justify invading Taiwan, and which Russia has used to assault Ukraine.
President Trump has also now threatened Cuba with similar language, and is preparing a giant corrupt giveaway to oil companies by claiming that the United States will acquire Venezuela’s oil. This is corruption of the highest order. Maduro was an authoritarian who stayed in power despite the will of the people, but that does not justify the United States in starting a war to benefit some of the world’s wealthiest corporations.
President Trump did all of this without the consent of Congress, and without providing any details or day-after plans. The full consequences of this act of war will not be known for some time, and they may require putting American boots on the ground in Venezuela, as the President has said he was prepared to do. The American people do not want to be dragged into another endless conflict distracting from the rising cost of living and the affordability crisis. Whatever happens next, the responsibility will be squarely with President Trump and his contempt for the Constitution and for Congress.