Democratic Senator Chris Coons is afraid President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will drag the U.S. into an unpopular war with Venezuela for the purpose of stealing its vast oil and rare-earth mineral resources.
Coons made the comments on MS NOW’s Deadline: White House show on Tuesday. He told the host that earlier that day he was shown footage of the “double tap” boat strike in the Caribbean by the U.S. military.
It also comes as U.S. military fighter jets conducted a flight over the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, marking what appears to be the closest American warplanes have approached the South American nation’s airspace since the Trump administration initiated its pressure campaign.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
A Washington Post report alleges that Hegseth gave troops an order to “kill everybody” on an alleged smuggling boat. After the initial strike, Navy Admiral Frank Bradley allegedly gave the order—reportedly with Hegseth’s blessing—to strike the wreckage a second time, killing two survivors.
Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth has claimed to CNN that the strike was a “war crime,” and Coons told MS NOW that “there’s been no proof” that the boat was actually a drug-smuggling vessel.
In the wake of the strike, Coons has called for more transparency from the Trump administration concerning its military actions against Venezuela. He said he is afraid that Trump is not simply trying to thwart alleged drug smugglers, but instead trying to spark a war with Venezuela.
“I’m afraid that Secretary Hegseth and President Trump are sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela, and that regime change and access to the critical mineral resources and oil and gas of Venezuela is the real purpose and real goal here,” Coons said.
It’s not just Democrats concerned about Trump’s aggressive actions toward Venezuela.
Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee and sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News’ John Roberts that he felt Trump was ignoring the Constitution to provoke a war with Venezuela.
Roberts asked Paul if Trump going to war with Venezuela or launching some kind of invasion is “in the cards.”
“You know, I’m kind of old-fashioned. I kind of like to obey this thing called the Constitution. The Constitution says that war only occurs when it’s declared by Congress,” Paul said.
“The president doesn’t have the power to take the country to war. Now, if he does, he wouldn’t be the first president to disobey the Constitution. But I think we should obey the Constitution because I think it makes war less likely.”
He continued, saying that if Trump wants war with Venezuela, he should “come and ask for permission from Congress the way it was intended.”
Roberts responded, noting that several past presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have approved significant military action without seeking congressional approval for war.
He listed the presidents who launched military operations without congressional authority, citing “Truman in the Korean War; Johnson in the Vietnam War; Reagan—the Grenada invasion—as well as Libya; President Clinton—the Kosovo War, where we were bombing Serbia; Obama—Libya and ISIS; President Trump’s Syria airstrikes and the Soleimani strike.”
Paul was not swayed by the precedent of presidents acting without congressional approval.
“I’m reminded of what my mother would tell me when I was a kid: 10 wrongs don’t make a right. So the fact that 10 presidents have done it incorrectly doesn’t make it right,” Paul said, adding that the Founding Fathers had made it clear through the Constitution that they wanted presidents to seek congressional approval before going to war.
Paul said he hopes that Trump will stay consistent with his track record of not engaging in violent regime change.
“It is very hard to stop a president hell-bent on war. But you know, what I liked most about President Trump was his idea that he didn’t believe in regime-change war,” Paul said. “He was against the Iraq War, he was against the war in Libya. So I hope that his instincts will prevail.”
