Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday he would introduce a War Powers Act resolution to prevent further military operations against Venezuela.
President Donald Trump announced in a Saturday post on Truth Social that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested in Caracas by a law enforcement operation protected by American military forces. Schumer called the operation “lawlessness,” Congress needed to act.
“The American people this morning, George, are scratching their heads in wonderment and in fear of what the president has proposed,” Schumer claimed. “The United States will run Venezuela. We have learned through the years when America tries to do regime change and nation building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars.”
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The Democratic leader also claimed the Trump administration didn’t have the authority to carry out the mission. Trump declared during a Saturday press conference on the operation which captured Maduro that the United States was “running” Venezuela, saying senior administration officials, including Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, would be in charge.
“They did not just do ships off the water,” Schumer said. “They went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places. And it’s a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress.”
Some prominent critics, including podcasters Keith Olbermann and Dean Obeidallah, took to the leftist social media website Bluesky to demand Trump’s impeachment over the operation. Congressional Democrats decried the operation as an illegal war in the wake of the operation, with Schumer accusing Trump administration officials of misleading the American people and Congress.
“So, what can the Congress do about it is the next question,” Stephanopoulos continued.
“Well, the next question is very simple, and that is that we have the War Powers Act. That’s a privilege resolution, which means the Republicans can’t block it,” the Senate minority leader responded. “Tim Kaine and I and Rand Paul are sponsors of it. It’s going to come to the floor this week. And if it is voted for, if it’s voted positively in both houses, then the president can’t do another thing in Venezuela without the OK of Congress. We have to pass it.”
Schumer took a very different tone with Trump in 2020, attacking him for failing to remove the Venezuelan dictator, who was initially indicted in March of that year on drug trafficking charges.
“The president brags about his Venezuela policy? Give us a break. He hasn’t brought an end to the Maduro regime,” Schumer complained at the time.
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