Bipartisan lawmakers slam U.S. takeover of Venezuela

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

Lawmakers have sharply criticized the United States’ takeover of Venezuela on Saturday.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will run Venezuela “until such a time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” Trump’s announcement followed U.S. strikes on the South American country and the capture of its leader, Nicolas Maduro, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on narco-terror charges.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the Trump administrations actions “unconstitutional” in a post on social media Saturday.

“The American people voted for lower costs, not for Trump’s dangerous military adventurism overseas that won’t make the American people safer,” Warren wrote.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., also called the actions unconstitutional and criticized the administration’s immigration priorities.

“He’s willing to risk American and Venezuelan lives for political gain, but refused to extend a critical lifeline to families fleeing the very crisis he claims to oppose,” Maxwell said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also criticized the administration’s actions and called for Trump to take action against cartels in Mexico. She said Trump is attempting to seize oil from Venezuela and institute a regime change in the country.

“Regime change, funding foreign wars, and American’s tax dollars being consistently funneled to foreign causes, foreigners both home and abroad, and foreign governments while Americans are consistently facing increasing cost of living, housing, healthcare, and learn about scams and fraud of their tax dollars is what has most Americans enraged,” Greene wrote on social media.

Greene said in November she would resign from Congress effective Jan. 5.

However, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he supported Trump’s actions in Venezuela but warned against Russia and China attempting to justify the wars in Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.

“Freedom and rule of law were defended last night, but dictators will try to exploit this to rationalize their selfish objectives,” Bacon wrote on social media.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who is also running for U.S. Senate, criticized the president on social media as well.

“Clearly, the President has decided that Congress is nothing more than a pesky accessory,” Crockett said.