President Donald Trump is scheduled to brief lawmakers soon on his administration's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The top Republican in the U.S. Senate is saying that briefing can't come soon enough.
CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju tweeted Monday that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) was apparently caught off-guard by the news that not only had the U.S. military had absconded with the leader of Venezuela and his wife over the weekend, but at Trump's implication that the U.S. would be running Venezuela remotely.
"Well, we're gonna try and get more information about that," Thune told Raju, citing the president's upcoming briefing with Congress.
When Raju asked Thune his thoughts on what Trump meant by his statement that the U.S. was temporarily in charge of the South American country, the Senate Republican leader simply responded by saying: "I'm hoping to find out more."
Early Saturday morning, the U.S. carried out a covert military operation in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas in which more than 40 people were killed, according to the New York Times. While most of the deaths were members of the Venezuelan military and Maduro government, 80 year-old civilian Rosa González was killed in the initial strike as U.S. forces hit Caracas.
A 70 year-old man named Jorge said he lost everything in the strike that killed González, which struck a three-story apartment building near the Caracas airport at approximately 2 AM local time. Another woman injured in the strike was taken to a hospital, with the Times reporting that she was in critical condition.
While speaking to the media aboard Air Force One, Trump told one reporter: "Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer, and it'll be very controversial." When the reporter asked Trump to clarify his statement, he responded with: "We're in charge." However, there are currently no U.S. troops stationed in Caracas. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president on Monday.