Trump’s ‘insane’ Venezuela attack triggers furious US Democrats to float retaliation

US President Donald Trump’s “insane” attack against Venezuela on Saturday, abducting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, has triggered lawmakers opposed to the move to float retaliation.

Amid a split in Congress, Democratic lawmakers furious over Trump’s Venezuela strike went so far as to call for impeachment and his removal from office despite the New Year holidays.

Tensions in Congress over Trump’s Venezuela aggression were already high as congressional Democrats complained that they had been left in the dark about developments in and around the Bolivarian Latin American nation, which possesses huge oil reserves.

“Trump must be impeached,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez in a statement, also calling for the passage of legislation to rein in executive war powers and reassert congressional control over the process.

Rep. Jared Huffman called Trump’s plan to run Venezuela “truly insane” and a “disaster.”

Referring to a Constitutional mechanism that allows the Cabinet to remove a president, he told Axios, “We are in 25th Amendment territory now.”

“The President has lost his mind,” Rep. Gil Cisneros told Axios in a text message.

“I had absolutely no briefing or heads up,” House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Greg Meeks fumed to Axios. “I received all information from the news media at this point.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a joint statement, demanded briefings for their members “early next week” after the New Year holidays.

“Today, many Democrats have understandably questioned whether impeachment is possible again under the current political reality,” said Rep. Maxine Waters. “I am reconsidering that view.”

Venezuelan president, wife taken to New York following kidnapping

US forces take Venezuela’s president to the US following an illegal military attack on the Latin American country that had resulted in his and his wife’s kidnapping.

Rep. Dan Goldman said in a statement, “This violation of the United States Constitution is an impeachable offense.”

From the other side of the aisle, some Republican lawmakers joined in the criticism of Trump’s Venezuela aggression.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie, both right-wing opponents of interventionist foreign policy, expressed skepticism of the administration’s actions in social media posts.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a centrist, said in a statement, “The only country that the United States of America should be ‘running’ is the United States of America.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s acting-president Delcy Rodriguez gave her people assurance on Saturday that the Bolivarian nation will never give in to Trump’s aggression and become a colony of any empire, let alone the falling United States.

“One thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are certain of,” Delcy Rodríguez said in a speech to the nation after being sworn in as the new president on Saturday, “is that we will never again be slaves, we will never again be a colony of any empire, whatever its nature.”

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