Senator Shelley Moore Capito says she will soon learn more about the Trump administration’s intent toward military action in Venezuela.
“We’re actually going to be having a closed door briefing tomorrow morning when I return to Washington by the Secretary and the intelligence community to inform us. So that’s part of our oversight responsibility,” Capito, R-W.Va., said on MetroNews Talkline.
“We need to have some responsibility here. I don’t think the President can make any more aggressive actions in terms of boots on the ground or anything, which I don’t think he’s interested in anyway, and so I think we need to be informed, and we need to be a part of the decision making.”
The Trump administration has been moving toward further conflict with Venezuela, establishing a major military presence in the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) region. Last week, U.S. forces seized a massive oil tanker that had been bound for Cuba.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is widely considered a dictator who retained power last year even as the opposition party and its leader, María Corina Machado, disputed election results. Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, lives in hiding.
Trump has been vocal with demands for Maduro to step down, and has accused Venezuela’s government of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Trump has said Maduro’s “days are numbered” and repeatedly warned that strikes inside Venezuela could come “soon.”
House and Senate war powers resolutions requiring congressional authorization for military action against Venezuela could soon be ready for votes.
Capito, on statewide radio, said she wants to learn more from the administration.
“I think I’d rather wait and see what I hear tomorrow morning in terms of what plans are or what’s already been done,” she said. “But I think as this moves forward, the President needs to be transparent, not just with us, but with the American people.”
Since September, the Trump administration has carried out strikes on nearly two dozen boats in international waters, including in the Caribbean, killing 83 people.
The administration has maintained those boats are being operated by drug traffickers. However, the administration has faced criticism for a lack of transparency and for not providing specific names or evidence to the public or to lawmakers.
Trump has linked the attacks on drug vessels to the fentanyl crisis. Most illegal fentanyl enters the United States from Mexico, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment does not list Venezuela as a fentanyl source or transit country.
Venezuela serves as a major transit hub for drugs originating from Colombia, particularly cocaine and marijuana, with experts saying most of that is shipped to Europe.
Capito has said she supports the strikes on the boats off Venezuela’s coast.
“I think certainly with the drug trafficking that Venezuela and the narco-traffickers have done, the president made it clear through very aggressive actions that we are not going to let those poisons into our country,” Capito said.
“And we see that in West Virginia probably more starkly than any other state, and I am on the side of eliminating anything fentanyl from coming into this country.”