Senators Look to Closed-Door Briefing for Answers on Venezuela’s Future

Senators are heading into a classified briefing Wednesday morning that’s likely to outline how U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But many are more interested in something else: what the administration plans to do now.

“What our objectives are, what our policy is — I’m not clear on any of that,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told NOTUS Tuesday.

Some senators said they were skeptical they’d get many answers on the path ahead from the briefing, which will feature Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

“I think most of the focus is going to be on the extrication of Maduro,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican retiring after this year, told NOTUS. “We have a history of going in, liberating and leaving. I’m interested in the leaving part.”

While Democrats have been more critical of the decision to depose a foreign leader, Republicans have plenty of questions. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. will “run” Venezuela, prompting lawmakers to ask what that actually means, how long the U.S. plans to stay involved, what the end goal is and whether it involves putting boots on the ground.

Asked what he thinks Trump meant when he said the U.S. would run Venezuela, Hawley replied, “I have no idea, none whatsoever. So I hope to find out.”

Sen. Mike Rounds said he’s hoping for a clearer timeline of “what the next six months are going to look like in terms of where we go from here to the next phases.” While he dismissed the need for troops on the ground, he said the U.S. would likely be involved throughout a transition period.

“I don’t think it’s an extended period,” Rounds said. “But we have to have a regime change through free and fair elections.”

Few Republicans have signaled an urgency to rein in the administration as Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul push for a war powers resolution that is likely up for a vote this week. Hawley said that he hasn’t reviewed the proposed war powers resolution yet and doesn’t plan to take a position until after the briefing.

Democrats have low expectations for the briefing.

“My strong suspicion is they will try to numb us with the details about the operation and as much as possible avoid the ‘what’s next?’ question, because I don’t think they know the answer,” Sen. Tim Kaine said.

Sen. Chris Coons said he shares many of the same concerns: “How are they going to run Venezuela? What tools are they going to use? How much is this going to cost? How many service members’ lives will be put at risk?”

A classified briefing on Monday night did not resolve lawmakers’ questions, said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who attended that meeting as the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I’ll be interested to see if I hear anything different,” Shaheen said of the Wednesday briefing with the full Senate. “There are a lot of questions about assumptions that are made about what happens next that we don’t have answers to.”