(NewsNation) — As Congress returns from recess on Monday, the strike on Venezuela will be front and center, as most lawmakers were in the dark about the mission President Donald Trump ordered to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration is defending its decision not to seek approval or communicate with Congress in advance of the strike, although at least a few leaders were contacted once the action was underway.
“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 a number of days,” Rubio told reporters at a news conference. “It’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.”
Response to the strike has largely fallen along party lines. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, “President Trump is putting American lives first. The United States will no longer allow criminal regimes to profit from wreaking havoc and destruction on our country.”
However, his Republican colleague, Congressman Thomas Massie, called into question the constitutionality of the strike, writing, “In the Constitution, the founders vested war-making power in Congress, not the executive branch.”
Most Democrats denounced Maduro but expressed concern about the legality of the strikes and what they perceived as a lack of a plan going forward, an outrage that Congress was not consulted.
Johnson said the Trump administration is scheduling briefings for Congress, and the GOP chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, said he will convene a briefing as soon as possible.
U.S. forces captured Maduro following an overnight strike on Venezuela early Saturday morning and transported him to New York City, where he and his wife face drug charges.