Congressional responses to President Donald Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro early in the morning of Jan. 3 fall into two categories. The Democrats ripped Trump for it, mainly for not consulting Congress, while Republicans were generally supportive.
Shortly after the U.S. launched strikes in Venezuela, Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona wrote on X: “This war is illegal.” The Senator, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was deployed in Iraq, called it the “Second unjustified war in my lifetime.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) specifically called out Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the operation—pointing to remarks the officials made during briefings late last year, reported The Hill. “Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” Kim wrote on social platform X. “Trump 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.”
Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL), while praising Maduro’s capture as a “major step” toward a free Venezuela, added on X that “Trump’s failure to seek Congressional approval for these strikes raises serious questions about the legality of the mission.”
“Congress did not authorize this war. Venezuela posed no imminent threat to the United States,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Like Kim, Soto also noted that top Trump officials had previously testified to Congress that the U.S. was not seeking to oust Maduro, and would seek Congressional authorization for any ground operations in Venezuela. “Congress must now conduct extensive hearings on the attack and all efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela,” said Soto.
Many Republicans backed the President’s decision, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a member of the Armed Services Committee, calling for the Venezuelan leader to “face justice for his crimes.” “Maduro wasn’t just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation. That’s why he was indicted in U.S. court nearly six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism,” Cotton wrote in a post online.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah initially expressed skepticism but turned around after speaking to Rubio, who told him that Maduro “has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.”
Therefore, Lee responded, “This action likely falls within the President’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
