As the Trump administrationescalates its pressure campaignagainst Venezuela, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Sunday demanded officials provide more information to Congress about the administration's ultimate objective with the Latin American country.
"What is President Trump's theory of the case? Is it regime change? We've got -- an amassed force almost unprecedented in the region, and I think the president needs to come to Congress and the American people if his goal is to further increase pressure on Maduro and potentially launch forces," Virginia Sen. Mark Warner told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
"I do not know what this president's goal vis-a-vis Venezuela is," Warner added. "We all know the history of American intervention in Central America and South America over the last 100 years has not been a great story."
Oil tanker seizure ratchets up pressure on Maduro: Analysis
Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, also took issue with the lack of information the administration provided.
"The president has not been, been clear, and he's not certainly been communicating with, with Congress, and I think he has been certainly escalating, both the rhetoric and certainly the presence in the area," Turner said.
While Turner said he agreed with the administration's focus on Venezuela, he concurred with Warner that the case needs to be made to Congress.
"I think the administration, though, is being slow to tell Congress because they don't want to tell everybody what they're doing. They don't want to show their hands as they're increasing this pressure," Turner said.
Last week, the Coast Guardseizeda U.S.-sanctioned oil tanker the U.S. said was shipping Venezuelan oil. The vessel, called The Skipper, is now on its way to Texas. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the court-approved seizure an act of "criminal piracy."
The administration also slapped sanctions on six additional vessels shipping Venezuelan crude oil, suggesting additional seizures could follow.
Turner defended the seizure, noting it was "done consistent with valid legal processes."
"It certainly puts additional pressure upon Venezuela, upon Maduro, but also upon all of these [shadow oil] systems. This sends shock waves around the world to all of these, these groups that are using these illegal systems to move money, to move oil," Turner told Raddatz. "This is a very important move."
The seizure comes amid a massive buildup of military assets and troops around Latin America. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the most lethal aircraft carrier in the world, was spotted in satellite imagery about 215 miles from the coast of Venezuela, closer than previously seen. Some 15,000 U.S. troops are also positioned in the region.
White House says US intends to keep seized tanker's oil, hits Maduro family with new sanctions
And while the U.S. has conducted 22 lethal strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats mostly in the Caribbean Sea, President Donald Trump last week again raised the possibility of expanding the strikes.
"And now we're starting by land, and by land is a lot easier, and that's going to start happening," Trump said Friday. "It's not only land strikes on Venezuela, it's land strikes on horrible people that are bringing in drugs and killing our people."
The actions together appear to amount to a pressure campaign on Maduro, who the administration has said is an illegitimate president of Venezuela.
Maduro has denied accusations that the tally showing he won the country's presidential election in 2024 was fraudulent; he says he was legitimately elected. The Biden administration also said his opponent won by "millions of votes."
"I agree that the Venezuelan people want Maduro gone," Warner said, adding that he doesn't believe the Biden administration put enough pressure on Maduro to get him out of office. But the senator noted he also has concerns about what would happen if Maduro was "pushed out," including whether it would lead to a U.S. troop presence in the country.
Seizing the tanker, Turner said, gives "Maduro the pause to see that the administration is not stopping, both as they have this military presence, but also economic pressure, that's going to put this regime, certainly in a very compromised position."
But on the question of regime change, Warner did not definitively answer whether he supports it when pressed by Raddatz.
"I think Maduro is a bad guy. There's plenty of other bad leaders around the world where we don't have this level of massed forces," Warner said. "I do fear that boots on the ground in Venezuela could be a disaster."
