U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Former Army intelligence officer turned congressman, Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), said he is aghast that oil executives learned of the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela before members of Congress did.
Legal and foreign policy experts have questioned President Donald Trump's actions in Venezuela, saying that the military operation wasn't authorized by Congress, which is required by the Constitution. According to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, quick military actions must be revealed to top members of Congress 48 hours prior to the operation and all troops must be out in 60 days.
Trump disregarded both requirements.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, Ryan said, "History doesn't repeat, to your point, but it certainly rhymes. The fact that the president, last night, on Air Force One, admitted that oil executives were informed of this, I think, illegal action before the Congress of the United States that represents the people — not just that it is the Congress, it represents the people — is incredibly dangerous."
He noted that it's clear people who don't have a security clearance knew about the operation while "the people weren't given a voice."
Ryan went on to say that what Trump said about the United States running Venezuela matches what was said before and during two "forever wars that the American people do not want."
"If there's one thing that I know my constituents and people across the country do not want it's these open-ended conflicts with no plan," he continued. "They clearly have no plan."
He said that it is important Americans make it clear that they don't want another war for oil or money.
Host Dana Bash cited several comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Sunday morning news shows in which he claimed it was wrong-headed to think that the endless wars in the Middle East were comparable to what they sought in Venezuela. According to Rubio, it's a different dynamic in the western hemisphere because it doesn't look like Libya or Iraq.
Ryan wasn't having it.
"The same things were said — I remember as a cadet at West Point in the lead up to the war in Iraq. The same things were said about the war in Vietnam. Comparisons were made in a similar way. It is such chicken hawk BS from Rubio, who's not served a single day in uniform to dismiss that as a phobia. You want to tell that to my friends on this bracelet that I lost in combat? You want to tell that to the innocent Iraqis that were killed? You want to tell that to the Venezuelan people who are saying, we're glad Maduro is gone, as am I, but what the heck is the plan afterwards and are we just going to hand this to another dictator who's going to do the will of our increasingly authoritarian president in Donald Trump?"
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