Congressional Democrats Rage At Trump’s Venezuela Operation

Democratic lawmakers railed against President Donald Trump’s overnight military operation in Venezuela on Saturday that resulted in the successful capture and indictment of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

Congressional Democrats argued Trump lacked legal authority and that it was counter to American interests to use military force against Maduro’s regime. Republican lawmakers largely praised Trump’s military operation with those representing South Florida’s large Venezuelan community describing it as an “historic day” for the Venezuelan people and Latin America.

“Second unjustified war in my life time,” Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat with reported presidential ambitions, wrote on X shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday. “This war is illegal, it’s 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.”

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth “blatantly lied to Congress” about the Trump administration’s objective in Venezuela.

“Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change,” Kim wrote on X.

The New Jersey Democrat also argued the military operation “put Americans at risk in Venezuela and in the region.” A U.S. official told The New York Times there were no casualties during the military operation.