House Democrat Claims Marco Rubio Told Congress They’d Need Approval for Strikes That Happened Anyway

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of lying to Congress following massive strikes against Venezuela and the capture of disputed-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Jayapal joined MS NOW’s Ali Velshi on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s press conference on the Maduro operation. Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York and drug charges and more and are currently being taken there. Trump shared an image of the captured Maduro to Truth Social following his capture.

Jayapal is among the lawmakers to accuse Trump of an unconstitutional action since he did not get congressional approval for the strike, something she claimed Rubio said the administration would need if they were to strike Venezuela when he briefed Congress earlier this month on ongoing strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats.

Velshi noted that congressional approval was brought up during the press conference, but Rubio argued there was no window to get congressional approval. Trump added that he believed details of the operation would have leaked had Congress been informed ahead of time.

“Listen, Marco Rubio came in, briefed Congress, told us that if they were going to attack Venezuela, they would need to come and get authorization. They would come back and get authorization from Congress,” Jayapal told Velshi.

Rubio also argued congressional approval was not necessary as this was a law enforcement effort where two “indicted fugitives” were captured to face charges.

Jayapal claimed the mission is about “oil” and regime change.

“You can see there’s no discussion about the plan for the plan after,” she said. “Donald Trump can’t run America. Now he wants to go run Venezuela while the American people can’t afford healthcare, can’t afford groceries. This is not what the American people want. This is not what is constitutional. This is not what is legal.”

During his press conference, Trump said the United States will “run” Venezuela for a time following Maduro’s removal. He did not name any Venezuelan who could take over for Maduro’s regime, which has faced scrutiny from global officials over their alleged election victory.

In a Saturday morning interview with Fox News, he dismissed critics calling his strikes “illegal.”

“We’re stopping drugs from coming into this country and nobody’s been able to do it until we came along,” the president said. “But they should say great job. They shouldn’t say, oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional, you know, the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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