Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims President Donald Trump did not need Congressional approval before attacking Venezuela.
Rubio spoke with NBC’s Kristen Welker Sunday in a nearly 20-minute interview on “Meet the Press,” per Mediaite.
Welker referred to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wile telling “Vanity Fair” Trump would need Congressional approval before striking Venezuela.
“White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told “Vanity Fair” that an attack on Venezuela’s mainland would require approval from Congress,” Welker said. “Why didn’t that happen? And will it happen with any future action the administration plans to take in Venezuela or elsewhere?”
Rubio said prior approval from Congress was not needed.
“This was not an action that required congressional approval,” Rubio said. “In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not invasion. This is not an extended military operation. This is a very precise operation that involved a couple of hours of action. It was a very delicate operation, too. It was one that required all these conditions to be in place at the right time in the right place. You couldn’t afford leaks. We couldn’t afford anything out there that would have endangered the mission and gotten people killed, or killed off the mission in the optionality.”
“We didn’t even know if the mission was going to happen. How can you notify something you’re not even sure if it can happen? Because in order for it to happen, you had needed to have weather conditions in place,” Rubio added.
Welker asked if the administration will seek “Congression approval for any further action in Venezuela or the region?”
“Well, we will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval, but otherwise they will get congressional notification,” Rubio said. “And this is not an operation that require Congressional approval. In fact, this is an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted. The difference is that when it’s Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.”
