Top Senate democrat demands answers on Trump’s Venezuela action

On January 5, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded answers from President Donald Trump’s administration over its actions in Venezuela, warning that American involvement could spiral into what he described as “endless wars”.

“House and Senate leaders will meet with senior administration officials to ask questions about what is going on in Venezuela, try to get to the bottom of it and what the plan is moving forward. The administration owes Congress and the American people some pretty basic answers to many important questions,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Schumer criticised Trump’s approach, saying it risked drawing the United States into broader military conflicts.

“The chaos Donald Trump has engendered in Venezuela leads him on in his mind to think he should try the same thing in Colombia, in Iran, even in Greenland. But the danger in Venezuela is only beginning. Donald Trump has opened a Pandora's box, and things will get out of hand very quickly,” he said.

The Democratic leader pressed the administration to clarify whether it intended to engage in nation-building, deploy U.S. troops on the ground, and how much such actions could cost or how long they might last. He said those questions must be answered for Congress and the American public before any further steps are taken.

Schumer said Americans “did not sign up for another round of endless wars” and expected Trump to focus instead on domestic priorities such as health care, housing, energy and food prices.

“Donald Trump's promise to keep us out of foreign entanglements is now as worthless as his promise to release the Epstein files,” he added.

By Aghakazim Guliyev