we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year

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Democratic lawmakers lambasted the administration early Saturday after President Trump announced U.S. personnel captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, flew them of the South American nation and carried out a “large scale” strike in the country.

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Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) specifically called out Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the operation — pointing to remarks the officials made during briefings late last year.

“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,” Kim wrote on social platform X. “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.

“This strike doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy,” he continued. “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.”

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Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) echoed him, calling it the “second unjustified war in my life time.”

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“This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year,” he wrote online. “There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”

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