High congressional leaders — comprising the “Gang of 8” — didn’t obtain a briefing from the administration earlier than the U.S. strike in Venezuela started, a number of sources informed ABC Information Saturday morning.
Per one supply, the Division of Protection notified congressional employees after the operation began.
Weeks in the past, President Donald Trump indicated he wouldn’t temporary lawmakers prematurely of any land operations in Venezuela as a result of he was apprehensive they might “leak.”
On this July 13, 2025, file photograph, President Donald Trump trying on throughout the award ceremony for the FIFA Membership World Cup 2025 Champions in East Rutherford, New Jersey. | On this Sept. 14, 2022, file photograph, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro attending a gathering on the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.
Angela Weiss, Federico Parra/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Early congressional response largely cut up alongside occasion traces.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio labored the telephones Saturday morning to shore up help amongst Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Notably, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee initially appeared crucial of the motion being taken with out authorization by Congress.
“I sit up for studying what, if something, may constitutionally justify this motion within the absence of a declaration of struggle or authorization for the usage of army pressure,” Lee posted on X.
However later, Lee adopted up his submit saying he had spoken by telephone with Rubio about and was now snug with the administration’s authority to take motion.
“Simply received off the telephone with @SecRubio He knowledgeable me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to face trial on legal costs in the US, and that the kinetic motion we noticed tonight was deployed to guard and defend these executing the arrest warrant This motion doubtless falls throughout the president’s inherent authority underneath Article II of the Structure to guard U.S. personnel from an precise or imminent assault Thanks, @SecRubio, for maintaining me apprised,” Lee wrote.
He additionally mentioned that Rubio informed him he anticipates “no additional motion in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press, alongside White Home Deputy Chief of Employees Stephen Miller and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, following US army actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Seashore, Florida, on Jan. 3, 2026.
Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
“This isn’t the type of mission that you are able to do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission by which circumstances needed to be met night time after night time,” Rubio mentioned later at a Mar-a-Lago information convention.
“Bear in mind, on the finish of day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice, and the Division of Struggle supported the Division of Justice in that job. Now there are broader coverage implications right here, but it surely’s simply not the type of mission that you could pre-notify as a result of it endangers the mission,” he mentioned.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, echoed Lee’s feedback after saying he, too, had spoken with Rubio.
“Nicolas Maduro wasn’t simply an illegitimate dictator; he additionally ran an unlimited drug-trafficking operation. That’s why he was indicted in U.S. court docket practically six years in the past for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism,” Cotton posted on X. “I simply spoke to @SecRubio, who confirmed that Maduro is in U.S. custody and can face justice for his crimes in opposition to our residents. I commend President Trump and our courageous troops and law-enforcement officers for this unimaginable operation.”
Later, chatting with Fox Information, Cotton mentioned, “Congress would not should be notified ever time the chief department is making an arrest. And that is precisely what occurred this morning in Venezuela, and now Maduro goes to return to the US, and he’ll face justice.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson speaks throughout a press convention on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 10, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned in a press release he has spoken to Rubio and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth in “the final a number of hours” — calling the army motion in Venezuela “decisive” and a “justified operation that can shield American lives.”
Johnson mentioned the Trump administration is working to schedule briefings subsequent week when Congress returns to Washington after the vacation break.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, mentioned in a press release that he had spoken with Rubio as properly and argued Trump’s actions had been undertaken as a part of “the execution of a legitimate Division of Justice warrant.”
“President Trump’s decisive motion to disrupt the unacceptable established order and apprehend Maduro, by way of the execution of a legitimate Division of Justice warrant, is a crucial first step to deliver him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the US,” Thune mentioned.
The highest Democrat on the Home Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, countered that Rubio had denied regime change was the administration’s purpose.
“Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, however I’ve seen no proof that his presidency poses a risk that will justify army motion with out Congressional authorization, nor have I heard a method for the day after and the way we’ll stop Venezuela from descending into chaos,” he mentioned in a press release. “Secretary Rubio repeatedly denied to Congress that the Administration meant to pressure regime change in Venezuela. The Administration should instantly temporary Congress on its plan to make sure stability within the area and its authorized justification for this determination.”
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine appeared on “Good Morning America” to debate the talk efficiency of his working mate, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
In a press release Saturday morning, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, one of many Senate’s most vocal advocates for congressional struggle authorizations, issued a scathing assertion on Trump’s actions in Venezuela and known as for Congress to take up his decision that will block the usage of the U.S. armed forces to interact in hostilities inside or in opposition to Venezuela until approved by Congress.
“The place will this go subsequent? Will the President deploy our troops to guard Iranian protesters? To implement the delicate ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To grab Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress People peacefully assembling to protest his insurance policies?” Kaine mentioned.
“Trump has threatened to do all this and extra and sees no want to hunt authorized authorization from folks’s elected legislature earlier than placing servicemembers in danger,” he mentioned.
Kaine, together with California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and co-sponsor GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, launched a struggle powers decision final month to dam the usage of the U.S. army to interact in hostilities inside or in opposition to Venezuela until approved by Congress.
That laws is able to be known as up for a vote. The Senate returns to Washington subsequent week on Monday, whereas the Home returns on Tuesday.
Final month, Republicans defeated two Democratic struggle powers resolutions that tried to reign within the president’s army actions within the Caribbean and East Pacific.
The primary measure, H. Con. Res. 61, would direct the president to take away U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist group within the Western Hemisphere until a declaration of struggle or authorization to make use of army pressure for such goal has been enacted.
That decision was authored by the rating Democrat on the Home International Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks. A vote failed on Dec. 17 by a depend of 210-216, with two Republicans voting in favor and two Democrats against the measure.
“This motion can also be a violation of worldwide legislation and additional undermines America’s international standing,” Meeks, D-N.Y., said Saturday following the operation. “Congress should reassert its constitutional position earlier than this escalation results in higher instability, chaos, and pointless danger to American lives.”
A separate struggle powers decision, H. Con. Res. 64 — championed by Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern and written to handle hostilities with Venezuela, narrowly failed by a vote of 211-213, with three Republicans voting in favor — at odds with the remainder of the Home Republican Convention. One reasonable Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted to defeat the measure alongside Republicans.
On Saturday, McGovern argued the strikes are unlawful.
“With out authorization from Congress, and with the overwhelming majority of People against army motion, Trump simply launched an unjustified, unlawful strike on Venezuela,” he posted on X.
Whereas congressional Republicans overwhelmingly expressed help for the Trump administration’s operation to seize Maduro, no less than three Home Republicans put out crucial statements of the motion.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky posted on X: “If this motion had been constitutionally sound, the Lawyer Common wouldn’t be tweeting that they’ve arrested the President of a sovereign nation and his spouse for possessing weapons in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm legislation.”
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska posted on X, partially, “My foremost concern is now Russia will use this to justify their unlawful and barbaric army actions in opposition to Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan. Freedom and rule of legislation had been defended final night time, however dictators will attempt to exploit this to rationalize their egocentric aims.”
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted, partially, “If U.S. army motion and regime change in Venezuela was actually about saving American lives from lethal medicine then why hasn’t the Trump admin taken motion in opposition to Mexican cartels?”
She added, “And if prosecuting narco terrorists is a excessive precedence then why did President Trump pardon the previous Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was convicted and sentenced for 45 years for trafficking tons of of tons of cocaine into America? Mockingly cocaine is identical drug that Venezuela primarily traffics into the U.S.
Greene continued, “People disgust with our personal authorities’s by no means ending army aggression and help of overseas wars is justified as a result of we’re pressured to pay for it and each events, Republicans and Democrats, all the time hold the Washington army machine funded and going. That is what many in MAGA thought they voted to finish. Boy had been we improper.”
