WASHINGTON — Republican leaders are defending the Trump administration’s decision to strike Venezuela and capture the country’s president even as top Democrats say there has not been enough clarity about a path forward — or the extent to which the United States will oversee a transfer of power.
Top White House officials met with congressional leaders on Monday for a classified briefing that lasted longer than two hours. Party leaders emerged with conflicting characterizations of the strikes, as Democrats say more information is required of what the administration plans to do next.
“This briefing, while very extensive and long, posed far more questions than it ever answered,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after the meeting. “I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries.”
During the briefing, congressional leaders heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. The administration officials only met with the top four party leaders and members of the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of senior lawmakers who are briefed on the most sensitive national security and intelligence matters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., lauded the military operation as “decisive and justified action,” telling reporters the mission “demonstrated the unmatched precision and effectiveness, professionalism and capability of the U.S. military.”
“There’s no other force on planet earth that can do what we can do, and it produced an outcome only America’s armed forces could achieve,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the White House would conduct a briefing for the full House on Wednesday, and administration officials are expected to address senators separately sometime mid-week.
House Republicans will also meet with President Donald Trump directly on Tuesday morning for a previously scheduled policy and strategy meeting, during which Johnson said the party would discuss the situation in Venezuela further.
The briefings come after the Trump administration received criticism from both sides of the aisle on whether the strikes were constitutional, with lawmakers questioning whether congressional approval was required under the War Powers Resolution.
Republican leaders characterized the military operation as one that did not require prior authorization from Congress, only notification within 48 hours — which was honored, Johnson said.
“My first call was at 4 a.m. by the secretary of state,” Johnson said. “In fact, in this case, the intelligence was so sensitive, the conditions had to be perfect. There was no predetermination of when exactly it would occur. If there had been prior notice, even assembling the Gang of Eight, for example, during the December holiday, it would have set off alerts.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., confirmed he was not notified before the strikes were initiated but echoed Johnson’s view that an advance warning could have compromised the operation.
“Notification of Congress in advance of really critical and hypersensitive missions, to me, seems ill-advised,” Thune said ahead of the briefing. “I felt that the notification, considering the scope of the mission, was sufficient.”
Still, Senate Democrats are using the strikes as an opportunity to rein in Trump’s powers, with plans to put a war powers resolution on the floor for consideration sometime this week. If passed, which may be unlikely as Republicans have opposed such efforts in the past, Trump would be limited in what military action he can order without congressional approval.
The resolution that would be voted on this week would specifically “terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela.”
That vote could come as early as Thursday, according to a source familiar with the Senate schedule.