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A choose group of lawmakers acquired their first closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday following the Trump administration’s weekend navy strikes in Venezuela and the seize of President Nicolás Maduro — a gathering that shortly divided alongside political traces.
The roughly two-hour assembly deep within the bowels of Congress featured prime administration officers offering a categorized briefing to congressional leaders and the chairs and rating members of the armed providers, intelligence and international relations committees.
Not one of the Trump officers, who included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Workers Chair Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine and Secretary of Struggle Pete Hegseth, spoke after the assembly.
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Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., walks from the chamber to talk with reporters after the ultimate vote to deliver the longest authorities shutdown in historical past to an finish, on the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photograph)
However a handful of lawmakers did, and questions nonetheless lingered about what precisely would come subsequent for U.S. involvement within the nation, if different comparable operations could be carried out throughout the globe, and who precisely was operating Venezuela.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., stated that there was no expectation that the U.S. could be on the bottom, nor would there be any “direct involvement in every other means past simply coercing the interim authorities to to get that going.”
“We’re not at conflict,” Johnson stated. “We should not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we’re not occupying that nation.”
“This isn’t a regime change,” he continued. “This can be a demand for change of conduct by a regime. The interim authorities is stood up now, and we’re hopeful that they may have the ability to appropriate their motion.”
Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fl., echoed Johnson, and reiterated that the operation was a “particular legislation enforcement operate that came about that took a big impediment out of the best way for the Venezuelan individuals to go chart a brand new future.”
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Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer slammed the Trump administration in January over its strike on Venezuela and seize of its chief, Nicolás Maduro, on drug trafficking conspiracy prices. (Heather Diehl/Getty Photographs)
He didn’t anticipate additional navy motion from the Trump administration within the nation, both.
“These items are performed earlier than breakfast,” Mast stated. “They do not do protracted conflict operations.”
Nevertheless, Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., countered that the prolonged assembly “posed way more questions than it ever answered.”
One rising level of rivalry amongst lawmakers is simply how straight concerned the U.S. can be, on condition that Trump stated that the U.S. would govern the nation till a correct transition of energy occurred.
Schumer stated that the plan introduced behind closed doorways or the U.S. operating Venezuela “is obscure, based mostly on wishful pondering and unsatisfying.”
“I didn’t obtain any assurances that we might not attempt to do the identical factor in different nations,” he stated. “And in conclusion, when america engages in this type of regime change and so referred to as nation constructing, it at all times finally ends up hurting america. I left the briefing feeling that it could once more.”
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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., questions Russ Vought, not pictured, in a Senate listening to in 2025 in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs)
Schumer, together with Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., plan to pressure a vote later within the week on a conflict powers decision that, if handed, would require the administration to get congressional approval earlier than taking additional navy motion in Venezuela.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., stated that he was glad with the briefing and that “it was a really complete dialogue.”
Lawmakers will get one other chew on the apple later within the week when Trump officers once more return to Congress to offer a full briefing to lawmakers on Operation Absolute Resolve.
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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence, lauded the navy for a “good execution” of the mission, and famous that the area was higher off with out Maduro.
However, like Schumer, he was nonetheless trying to find the following step.
“The query turns into, as policymakers, what occurs the day after,” Warner stated.
