'This Is an Insane Plan': Democrats Fume After Briefing on Trump Plot to Steal Venezuela's Oil

Democratic lawmakers were stunned as they emerged from a briefing Wednesday with Trump administration officials on the White House's plan for Venezuela following the US invasion last week—a meeting that marked the first time all members of the US Senate and House were briefed on the details of the attack and President Donald Trump's intentions going forward in the South American country.

"We learned a lot, I'm glad we had the briefing," a visibly shaken Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters. "But this is going to be a very rough ride for the United States."

The senators and later members of the House were briefed by officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Dan Caine.

As Rubio told the press after the meeting, the lawmakers learned about a three-step process the White House is planning, starting with an effort to "stabilize" Venezuela by seizing and selling 30-50 million barrels of oil and then controlling how the proceeds are dispersed.

The US will then ensure “American, Western, and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market in a way that’s fair” before ensuring that the third step is "one of transition," claimed Rubio.

Murphy said the proposal amounts to "stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for a period of time, undefined, as leverage to micromanage the country."

"This is an insane plan," he said after the briefing. "The scope and insanity of that plan is absolutely stunning."

In a video he posted on social media, Murphy spoke directly to US voters about how Trump's plan represents not only "corruption" that will benefit the president's "energy industry and Wall Street friends" and a "failure to learn lessons" from the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also an abandonment of working families across the US.

"This is going to be a multi-billion-dollar effort which is going to take money—your money—but also enormous time," said the senator. "Donald Trump, the White House, everybody there is going to be spending just as much time running Venezuela as they are running America. That's terrible news for you, for the American taxpayer. Because there's huge problems here at home. Healthcare premiums, prices going up, and now the United States government is going to be spending most of its time on many days running the country of Venezuela."

At a press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt elaborated on Rubio's comments, saying that the decisions of Venezuela's interim authorities—including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed power after President Nicolás Maduro was abducted by US forces last week—"are going to be dictated by the United States of America.” She added that it is premature to discuss elections in the country.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told reporters after the House's classified briefing that "there has to be a timeline for elections,” while Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said, “It’s like they’ll wave a magic wand and things will turn out the way they want.”

Numerous polls have shown that Trump's escalation against Venezuela, which has also included dozens of boat bombings since September that have killed more than 100 people whom the White House claimed were trafficking drugs to the US, is broadly unpopular with Americans. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Quinnipiac University survey said last month that they opposed US military operations in Venezuela.

“Across America, people are just saying, what the hell is going on?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said after the briefing. “We need answers as to how long this is going to last. We need answers to how many troops, how much money, are there guardrails, things we don’t do, and a number of things that we had talked about were very troubling.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was among the lawmakers who said the White House briefing made clear that Congress must hold public hearings on the Trump administration's operations in Venezuela, adding that oil companies—who Trump openly said on Sunday were informed of the military strike and capture of Maduro before they happened—"seem to know more about Trump's secret plan to 'run' Venezuela than the American people."

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) added that the US is "four months into a sustained military operation" and has killed more than 200 so-called "enemies."

"American troops have been injured," he said. "We have the US forces arranged around Venezuela. Yet neither the House nor the Senate have been willing to hold a single public hearing."