Senator Adam Schiff

Well, first of all, this began, as you know, with attacks on ships in the Caribbean. It was claimed by the administration that this was just about stopping drugs from coming to this country, stopping fentanyl from coming here, even though fentanyl is not a drug transported by Venezuela, by both the United States. It comes predominantly from Mexico with precursors made in China. But nevertheless, this was supposedly about drugs.

I introduced the first War Powers resolution to put a stop to that. It got bipartisan support, but not enough. This is now the third resolution Tim Kaine introduced, I was principal co-sponsor on, to put an end to further military involvement in Venezuela, because it's clear now

This claim that this was about narcotics was a ruse. This is about oil. This is about oil. This is about seizing the oil reserves of a country that has some of the largest, if not the largest oil reserve in the world. And now the president is saying we could be there for years running that country. And I think, frankly, what the president has been saying is largely responsible for why Republican support for our resolution has grown.

Because Republicans are deeply concerned that we're going to get bogged down in another endless war about oil. And that is not what we want to see happen. It's not what the American people want to see happen. And for the president now to respond this way, basically threatening Republican members who supported this with...

defeat at the polls is at the one hand, typical Donald Trump. At the same time, it is not working because we're seeing an increasing number of Republicans in the Senate and actually today in the House on a different issue on the ACA tax credits. We're seeing them willing to depart from the president.

Because I think frankly they're hearing from their voters and they're responding to the concerns over another endless war in the case of the War Powers Resolution in the Senate and high healthcare costs that Republicans are voting to address in the House.

Luulen, että olet täysin oikeassa siitä, että tämä ei ollut välttämättä droogia, vaan myös demokraattia. He eivät edes tehneet mitään, että tämä oli rakentamista oikeudellista hallintoa, hallintoa, jota olemme tunneet.

government or potential government of Maria Karina Machado, who won that election, her surrogate, won that election, Oscar Gonzalez. That is who should be brought back to Venezuela, but they have no intention of doing so. Instead, they're going to rely on the same corrupt regime, just a different corrupt actor. So instead of the number one corrupt actor, Maduro, they're going to rely on his number two

Rodriguez, vice president, now acting president. Because again, this was only about the oil, access to the oil.

The idea that somehow we're going to run this country at a distance by constraining their ability to sell oil, that they're going to go through some transition, that they're going to become a different kind of government, that all of the drug gangs and the muscle of the regime, Iran and Cuba and all the other foreign actors, are simply going to dissipate

is fanciful. It isn't going to happen. And you can just see us getting mired down in Venezuela, initially maybe putting diplomats on the ground and then they need protection for the diplomats and then all of a sudden we have boots on the ground. And, you know, if anything,

One of the commonalities within the public, a deeply divided public, but one of the commonalities between the Democratic base and the MAGA base is neither side wants to engage in another endless war that's about regime change, that's about nation building, and most particularly not if it's about oil. So I think we're going to see over time this has very little public support, and I think that's what you're seeing Republican members react to in the Senate today.

Ei, ei kuitenkaan. Olet nähnyt näitä vaihtoehtoja ja rationalisoituksia. Suurin osa niistä oli se, että tämä oli vain lainsäädäntökohtainen toiminta. Tämä ei ollut sotilaskäytäntöä, tämä ei ollut sotilaskäytäntöä. Tämä oli vain sotilaskäytäntöä, joka käytettiin, jotta pystyttäisiin järjestämään juurikuntaa Maduroista.

Tietenkin, jos se olisi tapahtunut, jos se järjestelmä olisi ollut oikeastaan se, mitä tapahtui, tämä olisi loppunut nyt. Maduro on saapunut, hän on saapunut järjestöön, joten varo on tehty, ja ei tarvitse lisää sotilaallista liiketoimintaa. Mutta tietenkin tämä ei ole siitä, vaan öljyä.

As we were saying it's not about democratic governance, otherwise, and I think I said Oscar, but Edmund Gonzalez, the one that we have recognized as having won the last election, would be brought back to lead the government, but that is obviously not happening. And I will say this.

for a president who dissembles all the time, who has no loyalty, obedience or understanding of the truth. He's nevertheless been transparent about one thing, and that is he has talked about oil, I think, more than two dozen times since this military operation and made it very clear what this is about. So I take him at his word on this, that it's about the oil

that he intends to try to run that country, that this is going to be a long term commitment. He also made that clear that we're not talking about months, we're talking about years. I just think that the administration's expectation that all of this can happen magically without the necessity of Americans being fully involved, without putting our service members at risk, without putting our Treasury at risk, I think is just

a farce, and sadly we have failed to learn from the experience that we suffered in Iraq and have suffered other places.

It's just so heartbreaking, so traumatizing to see this 37-year-old mother gunned down. There she is, and all I can judge from is the video that I think most of us have seen now.

Initially she's waving on other cars to go drive past. She wants to make sure her car is not in the way. And then things escalate and she's shot and killed. And this is, I think, yet another vivid demonstration