After it was announced that Trump had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the knee-jerk reaction from Democrats was to speak out against it.
This has been fairly typical of Democrats since Trump was elected for his first term.
One Democrat, and a powerful one at that, is going against the party, openly supporting the capture of Maduro.
It was only days ago that I had stated that with the buildup of forces in the area, Trump was likely to make a move. I was especially adamant about this once we found out special forces assets had been put in place.
This does not happen unless an operation is nearing its spin-up, and that is exactly what occurred this weekend.
Maduro and his wife were taken without incident, and he is already in New York to be arraigned on federal charges.
Prosecutors stated, "For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”
It took no time at all for Democrats to stick up for a murderous dictator over the rule of law.
For instance, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) stated, “Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress. Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”
He continued, “This strike doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government.”
That sentiment was echoed by dozens of Democrats, especially the uber-progressive Democrats, as Trump has once again managed to get Dems to defend a criminal.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) is one of the last people I would expect to stand by Trump on this, but then I realized her district in Florida has a significant population of Venezuelans, who were literally dancing in the streets.
She posted to X, “The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule.”
The lawmaker clearly did not get the party memo from leadership that they were pushing that the arrest was illegal. Instead, she actually put her constituents first, bucking the party narrative in the process.
To be clear, there is legal precedent for this arrest, and I fully support the move by Trump to remove Maduro. I think Trump may have hurt himself with some of the statements he made to the media after the arrest, as he should have kept the narrative focused on Maduro’s criminal activities. That aside, the world is a better place today with Maduro behind bars.
