\n<\/p>\n
The United States\u2019s attack on Venezuela and the purported \u201ccapture\u201d of President Nicolas Maduro have drawn heated reactions in Washington, DC, amid months of mounting tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Democratic lawmakers have largely condemned US President Donald Trump\u2019s actions on Saturday against the South American country and its leader, saying they violate international law and lack necessary Congressional approval.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Members of Trump\u2019s Republican Party, meanwhile, have defended the attacks as part of the administration\u2019s push to stem drug trafficking into the US.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at some of the reactions from US lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s illegal and unprovoked bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president are grave violations of international law and the U.S. Constitution. These are the actions of a rogue state,\u201d Tlaib wrote on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people do not want another regime change war abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n The Democratic senator accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of lying when they told lawmakers during a Senate briefing last month that the US pressure campaign against Venezuela was not about regime change.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,\u201d Kim wrote on X.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump 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.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the US strike \u201cdoesn\u2019t represent strength\u201d and is not \u201csound foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n McCollum, the ranking Democrat on the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, called on Trump to immediately halt US strikes against Venezuela.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actions taken today by the Trump administration are blatantly illegal,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela poses no imminent national security threat to the United States and Congress has not voted to authorize any use of force in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n She urged Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call the House of Representatives back into session immediately \u201cto rein in this out-of-control President\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis war is illegal, it\u2019s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela,\u201d Gallego wrote on X.<\/p>\n McGovern also raised questions about the lack of Congressional oversight, saying that \u201cwithout authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe says we don\u2019t have enough money for healthcare for Americans\u2014but somehow we have unlimited funds for war??\u201d the Democratic lawmaker wrote on X.<\/p>\n Johnson, the Republican leader in the US House of Representatives, welcomed the US attacks on Venezuela as a \u201cdecisive and justified operation that will protect American lives\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump is putting American lives first, succeeding where others have failed, and under his leadership the United States will no longer allow criminal regimes to profit from wreaking havoc and destruction on our country,\u201d he said on social media.<\/p>\n Johnson added that the Trump administration would schedule briefings for US lawmakers when Congress returns next week.<\/p>\n Cotton, a top Trump ally in Congress, hailed the US president as well as US troops and law enforcement officers for an \u201cincredible operation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNicolas Maduro wasn\u2019t just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation. That\u2019s why he was indicted in U.S. court nearly six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism,\u201d Cotton wrote on X.<\/p>\n He said he spoke with Rubio, the US secretary of state, who confirmed that Maduro was in US custody and \u201cwill face justice for his crimes against our citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n Cotton then appeared to threaten the interim government in Venezuela, saying it needed to \u201cdecide whether to continue the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether to act like a normal nation and return to the civilized world\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI urge them to choose wisely,\u201d Cotton wrote.<\/p>\n Lee, who had been critical of the Trump administration\u2019s pressure campaign against Venezuela, said Rubio told him that Maduro had been arrested \u201cto stand trial on criminal charges\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n Lee also wrote on social media that Rubio told him the US military action in Venezuela \u201cwas deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis action likely falls within the president\u2019s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack,\u201d Lee said in a post on X.<\/p>\n The Florida senator said \u201cthe strikes against and capture of narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro\u201d were conducted \u201cwith a level of professionalism and precision\u201d.<\/p>\n He said they also send a message to the world that Trump \u201cis a man of his word, and the United States will not tolerate terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaduro was indicted in a U.S. Court and was told to stop sending drugs into our country to kill our kids and grandkids, but he refused. This is peace through strength on full display. Today, America and the world are a safer place,\u201d Scott wrote on X.<\/p>\n Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump ally-turned-critic, has raised serious questions about an apparent double-standard in the Republican leader\u2019s strategy to fight drug trafficking.<\/p>\n In a social media post, Taylor Greene blamed most drug-related deaths in the US on Mexican drug cartels, but noted that Trump had not carried out strikes against those groups.<\/p>\n She also challenged the Trump administration\u2019s claim that it is fighting \u201cnarco terrorists\u201d by noting that Trump recently pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of trafficking massive amounts of cocaine into the US.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next obvious observation is that by removing Maduro this is a clear move for control over Venezuelan oil supplies that will ensure stability for the next obvious regime change war in Iran,\u201d she wrote on X.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd of course why is it ok for America to militarily invade, bomb, and arrest a foreign leader but Russia is evil for invading Ukraine and China is bad for aggression against Taiwan? Is it only ok if we do it?\u201d<\/p>\n Vance said that the operation to \u201ccapture\u201d Maduro shows that Trump \u201cmeans what he says\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,\u201d Vance said on social media.<\/p>\n Before Saturday\u2019s attacks, senior Trump administration officials had said Venezuela\u2019s oil belongs to Washington, falsely describing the nationalisation of the South American country\u2019s petroleum industry as \u201ctheft\u201d.<\/p>\n In his X post, Vance also addressed the experts, world leaders and US lawmakers who have denounced the administration\u2019s actions against Venezuela as illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd PSA for everyone saying this was \u2018illegal\u2019: Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don\u2019t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,\u201d the US vice president said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The United States\u2019s attack on Venezuela and the purported \u201ccapture\u201d of President Nicolas Maduro have drawn heated reactions in Washington, DC, amid months of mounting tensions between the two countries. Democratic lawmakers have largely condemned US President Donald Trump\u2019s actions on Saturday against the South American country and its leader, saying they violate international law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib<\/h2>\n
Democratic Senator Andy Kim<\/h2>\n
Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum<\/h2>\n
Democratic Senator Reuben Gallego<\/h2>\n
Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern<\/h2>\n
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/h2>\n
Republican Senator Tom Cotton<\/h2>\n
Republican Senator Mike Lee<\/h2>\n
Republican Senator Rick Scott<\/h2>\n
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/h2>\n
US Vice President JD Vance<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"