WATCH: Marco Rubio DESTROYS Democrats Claiming Venezuela Operation was Illegal and Lacked Congressional Approval
Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the Trump Administration’s capture of Nicolas Maduro on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and gave a thorough explanation of why the administration did not need congressional approval to execute the strikes in Venezuela and arrest Maduro.
The action “couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion; this is not an extended military operation,” Rubio said, noting that they couldn’t afford leaks that would risk the lives of US troops.
“This was not an attack on Venezuela. This was a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker, and of course, we needed the Department of War to support it because they do have anti-aircraft missiles that could shoot down those helicopters. ”
Leftist NBC host Kristen Welker attempted to interrupt repeatedly and press Rubio to commit to congressional approval for future actions in the region. But Rubio stood his ground, declaring that “We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval, but otherwise they will get congressional notification.”
“This is not an operation that requires congressional approval,” he added. “In fact, this is an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted. The difference is that when it’s Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.”
WATCH:
Rubio: This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion; this is not an extended military operation. This was a very precise operation that involved a couple of hours of action. It was a very delicate operation, too. It was one that required all these conditions to be in place at the right time and the right place. You couldn’t afford leaks. We couldn’t afford anything out there that would have endangered the mission and gotten people killed or killed off the mission and the optionality. We didn’t even know if the mission was going to happen. How can you notify something you’re not even sure if it can happen?
Because in order for it to happen, you had needed to have weather conditions in place, he needed to be at the right place at the right time, we needed to have forces prepared to go. There were a lot of factors in place. It was a trigger-based operation. You can’t notify that, number one, because you don’t even know if it’s going to happen, if those conditions will ever align, and number two, you can’t risk it being disclosed. But this was not an attack on Venezuela. This was a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker, and of course, we needed the Department of War to support it because they do have anti-aircraft missiles that could shoot down those helicopters. We had to take down radars, we had to take down those anti-air elements on the way in and on the way out, and that’s what this was limited to.
Welker: But will you seek congressional approval for any further action in Venezuela or the region?
Rubio: Well, we will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval, but otherwise they will get congressional notification, and this is not an operation that requires congressional approval. In fact, this is an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted. The difference is that when it’s Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.
Trump and Rubio also explained during a press conference on Saturday that notifying Congress would have put the mission at risk. “Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers,” Trump said.
WATCH:
Reporter: Did you notify any members of Congress in advance?
Rubio: We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do Congressional notification on. It was a trigger based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for number of days. So, it’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, “Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days,” but it’s largely a law enforcement function. Remember, at the end of day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice, and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job. Now there are broader policy implications here, but it’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.
Trump: Plus, if I could add one thing to that, Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good. If they leaked, General, I think it would have been maybe a very different result. But I have to say, they knew we were coming at some point, you know? We had a lot of ships out there. Tthey sort of knew we were coming. We went. But Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers.
US forces were in and out of Venezuela during the quickly executed operation, which resulted in the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife on Saturday.
Maduro was indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States, the Gateway Pundit reported.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Maduro was taken to Stewart Airport just north of New York City on Saturday afternoon and later transported to Brooklyn. He is expected to appear in court as soon as Monday.
President Trump detailed how Maduro was “bum rushed so fast” that he couldn’t escape during an interview just hours after the operation.
Trump further stated that the US was prepared to launch secondary attacks with an “armada like nobody’s ever seen before” surrounding Venezuela.
He also put Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on notice, stating, “Something’s gonna have to be done with Mexico.”
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