‘This Isn’t Rocket Science’: Republican Lawmakers Say ‘Running’ Venezuela Will Work Out Fine

Congressional Republicans say they’re confident that whatever happens next in Venezuela will work out in Americans’ favor.

Their rosy outlook defies the lack of detail available about what it means that the U.S. is “running” Venezuela. And there’s a long list of U.S. involvement in regime changes that Democrats, and even some conservatives, are pointing to as reason to take a more measured tone. But still, many Republicans say it’s different this time.

“We know what works and what doesn’t work. Sure, there’s some rough edges, or whatever like that, but we’re smart enough to figure this out. This isn’t rocket science,” said Sen. Jim Justice. “We need to be close with our neighbors all the time and work with our neighbors. I think this will be a very, very, very good marriage going forward and everything, and it’ll be beneficial to everybody.”

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Justice argued that U.S. intervention in Venezuela would deter further other countries from acting against American interests.

“America’s this big bear. Everybody just wants to beat on it, beat on it, beat on it,” Justice said. “Well, it’s high time we just quit getting beat on, in my opinion.”

In the days since the Trump administration ousted Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s president and brought him to the U.S. to face federal charges, President Donald Trump has said he is “not afraid of boots on the ground” and told The Atlantic that Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s successor, would face a worse fate if she didn’t comply with his wishes, clearly leaving open the possibility of further engagement.

“We’re gonna end up with a democracy that works well. I mean, the people of Venezuela have lived under a democracy before, and they want a democracy,” Sen. Rick Scott said. “It’s hard for any country to impose a leadership team on another country … I’m optimistic, like the president is, and like Secretary Rubio, that we’ll get to liberty, freedom and opportunities for everybody in Venezuela. But it’s gonna be hard.”

The administration has faced questions from lawmakers not only about what its next moves are but how this approach is different from past interference in a foreign nation’s affairs — the nation has been involved in dozens of regime changes since World War II concluded, including in Panama and Haiti.

Republican lawmakers, though, have largely lined up behind Trump’s moves. Rep. Ryan Zinke, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NOTUS that while he’s supportive of the operation, a successful, long-term regime change will require investments authorized by Congress.

“We should be emphasizing that we’re not conquerors, we’re liberators, and there’s a responsibility because the Monroe Doctrine is not a one-way street,” Zinke said. “I want Venezuela to prosper, and part of that is staying there and helping them build the conditions in order to be prosperous. That means that you utilize their resources, which takes an enormous amount of investment.”

Reuters/Ipsos polling immediately after the strikes found that a third of Americans support the U.S.’s overnight raid of Venezuela and its capture of Maduro. It also found that 72% of Americans, and more than half of Republicans, worry the U.S. will “become too involved” there.

The Trump administration has acknowledged those concerns.

“We’ve got this phobia built up” around regime changes, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” But he argued that “people need to stop ascribing apples and oranges here — the apples of the Middle East, or the oranges of the Western Hemisphere.”

“Venezuela looks nothing like Libya. It looks nothing like Iraq. It looks nothing like Afghanistan. It looks nothing like the Middle East,” Rubio said. “These are Western countries with long traditions, on a people-to-people and cultural level, and ties to the United States.”

Sen. Ted Budd echoed Rubio’s apples-and-oranges language when he told NOTUS he didn’t expect much more of a U.S. military presence in Venezuela.

“It’s completely apples and oranges,” Budd told NOTUS about comparisons to U.S. interventions in the Middle East. “I don’t think we have any designs on staying there. We just want somebody that’s U.S.-friendly and better for the Venezuelan people.”

When asked whether there might be some fear regarding a U.S.-led regime change, as Rubio acknowledged, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s chair, Sen. Jim Risch, told NOTUS that it’s “an important question, but it requires some cerebral discussion, and that’s not gonna happen in the hallway.”

Other Senate Republicans expressed confidence U.S. intervention would work out because the raid — which Venezuelan officials say killed at least 40 people and U.S. officials estimate killed about 75 — was limited and precise. Whatever happens next, they said, will be up to the results of the next Venezuelan election, whenever that might be.

“This was a law-enforcement mission. We nabbed the guy, we’ve thrown him in jail and we started that process. So the rest of the story in large part will be up to the Venezuelan people, but so far all we’ve had is a law-enforcement action,” Sen. Roger Marshall told NOTUS. “Pretty much every president has done something like this.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, who calls himself an “America First” Republican, pointed to “Iraq and Afghanistan” as reasons some Americans might be concerned about what happens next.

Will this regime change be different? “I don’t know,” Hawley said.

“I don’t have a sense of what exactly is happening in Venezuela, or what our priorities are. I haven’t been briefed on it,” Hawley continued, adding that he might “know more” after the administration briefs senators Wednesday.

Of the 11 Senate Republicans that NOTUS interviewed for this story, Hawley and Sen. Ron Johnson were the only ones who didn’t express full confidence in the Trump administration’s handling of whatever happens next in Venezuela, whether that means the U.S. will be involved in choosing its next leaders, or not.

“What happens next is unknowable,” Johnson said. “I mean, you can tell by the tact of this administration, the last thing they want is a nation-building exercise with U.S. troops. They’ll try to use whatever leverage they can in terms of the boycott and ships, that kinda thing.”

Still, Republican lawmakers were largely insistent that this regime change will work out.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin insisted this intervention in South America was different from past expensive and deadly U.S. interventions abroad because Maduro’s reign was “illegitimate.”

“We took out a guy that wasn’t supposed to be there,” Mullin said. “He wasn’t elected. He was a dictator that wasn’t elected, and he was a narco-terrorist. What happened with [Hillary] Clinton, when she was secretary of state, ask her. They’re not the same. They’re not even close to the same.”

Rep. Young Kim, who also sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said that so far, U.S. actions in Venezuela look nothing like former President Barack Obama’s in Libya.

“Right now, it is within the War Powers Act, and from previous administrations, like President Obama, they did that in Libya, and that was weeks at a time. This was a very targeted, precise, limited mission: went in, got out, less than 30 minutes,” Kim told NOTUS. “We want the best for the people of Venezuela. And the United States will be there to support freedom, democracy, as Venezuelan people find its way to democracy.”