Trump says U.S. is “in charge” of Venezuela, Maduro expected in court Monday

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the operation to capture Maduro is “clearly illegal under international law,” while pointing to broader implications.

“Think of what Russia and China just learned,” Himes said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “Russia and China just learned that all you need to do if you want to go into Estonia is to say that the leader of Estonia is a bad person. You don’t even need to make a particularly good case.” 

Himes said “there’s no national security expert saying that Venezuela was a mortal threat to the United States three weeks ago.”

“So what China and Russia just learned is that the beacon of liberty and rule of law in the world has now green lighted snatch and grab operations in Estonia, in Taiwan, wherever Xi and Putin decide they want to go next.”

The Connecticut Democrat added that it’s also “clearly not legal under the Constitution, because though presidents of both parties have argued against this, the Constitution is really pretty clear that the representatives of the people get to be consulted and ultimately approve military activity.”

“That has not happened here at all,” Himes said. 

Himes said he was “delighted to hear that Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been in regular contact with the administration,” saying he’s had “zero outreach” and isn’t aware of any other Democrats who have received outreach either. 

“So apparently, we’re now in a world where the legal obligation to keep the Congress informed only applies to your party, which is really something,” he added.

Himes pointed to the reaction from Republican lawmakers and other officials so far, saying “we’re in the euphoria period of acknowledging across the board that Maduro was a bad guy and that our military is absolutely incredible.”

“This is exactly the euphoria we felt in 2002 when our military took down the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Himes said. “In 2003 when our military took out Saddam Hussein, and in 2011 when we helped remove Muammar Qaddafi from power in Libya.”

Himes said “what we learned the day after the euphoria phase is it’s an awful lot easier to break a country than it is to actually do what the president promised to do, which is to run it.”