Virginia’s two U.S. Senators are sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s military action in Venezuela, with Tim Kaine calling it an “unauthorized” attack after the United States launched strikes and announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In a statement Saturday, Kaine (D-Va.) said the operation marks a “sickening return” to an era of U.S. intervention in Latin America and called on Congress to reassert its constitutional role in decisions about war and peace. He said a bipartisan resolution to bar military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization will be brought up for a vote next week.
“Where will this go next?” Kaine asked in his statement. “Will the President deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorization from people’s elected legislature before putting servicemembers at risk.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) echoed Kaine’s concerns, saying it sets a precedent that other nations could take on their own. “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership?” Warner asked. “What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”
Warner called the administration’s actions hypocritical, noting that Trump “recently pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court on serious drug trafficking charges, including conspiring with narcotics traffickers while in office. Yet now, the administration claims that similar allegations justify the use of military force against another sovereign nation. You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case, while issuing a pardon in another.” At a news conference this morning President Trump said the United States, “would run the country for now.”
