Posted on 01/05/26
| News Source: FOX45
Just six years after criticizing President Donald Trump’s failure to deliver on his promise to “bring democracy to Venezuela,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is now lambasting the president for his “reckless” capture of Venezuelan P resident Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.
“Let me be clear: Nicolás Maduro is an illegitimate dictator,” Schumer said in a statement.
“But launching military action without congressional authorization and without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless.”
Army special forces captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from the nation’s capitol Saturday. They are currently detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and several other weapons charges.
Trump shared that with Maduro in United States’ custody, Venezuela would be “run” by the United States.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a news conference in Florida
Schumer said Trump’s comment of the United States’ temporary takeover of the oil- rich country contradicts with what the Trump administration has allegedly told Schumer of its plans in Venezuela.
“The administration has assured me three separate times that it was not pursuing regime change or taking military action in Venezuela. Clearly, they are not being straight with Americans,” Schumer said in the statement.
“The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” Schumer continued. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”
Schumer and other Democrats are now pursuing a vote scheduled for next week on a war powers measure which would end the Trump administration’s military intervention in Venezuela. The resolution is sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). It would only require a simple majority to pace.