Senior Democrats spoke to media after the classified briefing, accusing US President Donald Trump and his senior officials of lying about the reasoning for the military action and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the briefing posed more questions than it had answered, including whether the White House would avoid taking similar actions against other countries in the future.
“I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries,” Schumer said after the briefing, CNN reported.
“And in conclusion, when the United States engages in this kind of regime change and so-called nation building, it always ends up hurting the United States,” he added.
“And I left the briefing feeling that it would.”
Senior Republicans have defended Trump’s decisions and the seizure of Maduro, who pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism in New York federal court Tuesday, insisting that Trump didn’t plan to occupy or rule Venezuela.
“We do not have armed forces in Venezuela and we are not occupying that country,” Republican House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson said.
Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Brian Mast also denied the Trump administration’s plan to nation-build in Venezuela.
“They are not the protracted war administration,” Mast said, when asked by the media how he would reassure Americans that the US would not face another war like the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Trump’s pick of Rodríguez questioned
Democratic senator Jeff Merkley criticised Trump’s support for Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s interim president.
“What it looks like is he wants to keep the dictatorship in the palace, just with the vice president becoming head of government, rather than Maduro,” Merkley said, according to a CNN report.
“He just wants a dictator that will say ‘Yes sir’ when the United States says ‘Do this or do that’ … I think that’s a big problem for us.”
The Republican-controlled Senate has been expected to vote this week on whether to block further military action against Venezuela without congressional approval.
The Republicans insisted the operation over the weekend didn’t require congressional approval due to its short period and its role in law enforcement.
But Democrats and some Republicans have accused Trump of seeking to sidestep the Constitution’s requirement that Congress has to approve any military action needed to defend the United States, unless the action is brief and limited.
Republican Senate majority leader John Thune said there would be more details around how long the US would remain in control of Venezuela in coming days.
— With additional reporting from Reuters
