Chuck Schumer Says Democrats Want ‘All the Facts Out’ About Venezuela Mission

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats want to “hold the Trump administration accountable” after the administration’s surprise capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

On a call with reporters Saturday afternoon, Schumer said Democrats are demanding immediate briefings, including a full-Congress briefing, and seeking a vote on a War Powers Resolution when Congress returns next week. He and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also asked the administration to brief the Gang of Eight, which includes leaders and Intelligence Committee chairs from both parties and chambers.

“We want to know the administration’s objectives, its plans to prevent a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster that plunges us into another endless war or one that trades one corrupt dictator for another,” Schumer said.

Trump announced early Saturday that the U.S. military had carried out a “large scale strike” and captured Maduro and his wife, who he said are being moved to New York. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro would face charges including “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy.” Trump said later Saturday the U.S. would “run the country” of Venezuela until “we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

The Trump administration has acknowledged and defended its decision not to notify Congress ahead of the operation, with the president even saying that it was because of the risk of a “leak” from Congress. Schumer called that “a total excuse to keep Congress in the dark” and said that as of 3 p.m. EST, he had still not received any additional details from the administration.

He said he wanted a Gang of Eight briefing as soon as Saturday, but that the administration had not responded to that request. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Schumer said he also wants the Senate to vote on a bipartisan resolution that would bar any war with Venezuela that Congress does not authorize.

Sen. Tim Kaine, one of that resolution’s co-sponsors, went a step further on a separate call with reporters, demanding that Congress not fund any military actions in Venezuela through the government funding negotiations that are currently underway.

Kaine told reporters that in addition to his resolution, he’s pushing for an amendment to the upcoming defense appropriations bill that would prohibit congressional appropriations from being used to pursue military actions in Venezuela. Kaine has signaled he’ll force a vote on his War Powers Resolution in the coming days.

“There’s no reason for this to delay appropriations, unless people are afraid to go on record and vote on whether or not they support military funding for a war in Venezuela,” Kaine said. “Nobody who’s a U.S. senator, who’s worth their salt, should be afraid to cast a vote on a matter of such moment.”

Schumer did not say whether he would support using government funding as leverage for military oversight.

“You know, Jan. 30 is days away,” he said. “Let’s first get all the facts out. That’s what we’re endeavoring to do right now, and our first ability to do that will be the War Powers Act of this week.”

Both Kaine and Schumer said that the administration did not indicate it was aiming for regime change in past classified Senate briefings about Venezuela.

“When we received briefings, most recently, in classified setting, finally, a briefing for all 100 senators, there was no suggestion, none by this administration, that the purpose behind this military action was to change the regime,” Kaine said.

Schumer said he specifically asked about regime change as recently as December, and that the administration had assured him it was not pursuing it.

Members of both parties have said Maduro is an “illegitimate dictator,” including Schumer on the call. But Democrats insist Congress should be given full oversight of the president’s military aims.

Republicans have been publicly supportive of Trump’s overnight moves in Venezuela, but Schumer said some top Democrats on Senate committees had told him that in private conversations, some Republican counterparts have said they “are troubled by this.”

“We hope that we can have support from our Republican colleagues to put a brake on this long before it gets that far,” Schumer said, when asked whether a Democratic majority in the next Congress would have more options for stopping an unauthorized military campaign.

“This is unprecedented as to what he has done, in the way he has done it, in the secrecy in which he is engaged in it,” Schumer said. “And we’re going to do everything we can to hold them accountable and to restrain the kinds of bad efforts that seem to be happening, that are happening right now and could get worse.”