Rubio Faces Tough Questions From Democrats on Venezuela |
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent nearly three hours on Wednesday parrying questions from Senate Democrats on the U.S. military incursion in Venezuela and the lack of congressional authorization or even consultation going into the early January operation to seize President Nicolás Maduro.
Most Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heaped praise on their former committee colleague for his leading role in the administration’s Venezuela policy. However, two Republican senators joined Democrats in voicing concerns, including about the international implications of the administration’s legal justifications for toppling the Maduro government.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent nearly three hours on Wednesday parrying questions from Senate Democrats on the U.S. military incursion in Venezuela and the lack of congressional authorization or even consultation going into the early January operation to seize President Nicolás Maduro.
Most Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heaped praise on their former committee colleague for his leading role in the administration’s Venezuela policy. However, two Republican senators joined Democrats in voicing concerns, including about the international implications of the administration’s legal justifications for toppling the Maduro government.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who has long criticized both Democratic and Republican administrations for their increasingly expansive interpretations of executive war powers, noted that defenders of the Maduro operation and the U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific assert that those actions “are not really wars” but rather are “kinetic actions or drug busts.”
Indeed, Rubio himself made that case during the hearing, telling Paul, “We just don’t believe that this operation [to capture Maduro] comes anywhere........