A Democratic senator has accused senior Trump administration officials of misleading Congress about the true purpose of recent U.S. military action in Venezuela, alleging a sharp disconnect between what lawmakers were told behind closed doors and what ultimately unfolded on the ground.
According to HuffPost, Senator Chris Murphy made the claims during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, where he described a classified briefing held last month ahead of the operation. According to Murphy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with senators to outline the administration’s plans and objectives regarding Venezuela in the days before the strike took place.
Murphy said that during that briefing, lawmakers were assured the operation was narrowly focused on disrupting drug trafficking networks and had nothing to do with regime change. In his telling, both officials explicitly denied that the United States was seeking to remove Venezuela’s president from power. However, Murphy argued that subsequent actions by the administration told a very different story, one that directly contradicted those assurances.
The administration’s story keeps changing and doesn’t add up
“They literally lied to our face,” Murphy said. “They told us this was just a counternarcotics operation to stop drugs from reaching the United States.” He pointed out that around the same time, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said publicly that Congress would be consulted before sending troops to Venezuela.
But that’s not what happened. The Trump administration launched an attack on Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Murphy says the administration can’t be trusted anymore. Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the seizure of Maduro, warning that Trump is risking American lives.
The senator revealed there isn’t even a briefing scheduled for next week to explain what happened or what comes next. Everyone who attended the original briefing heard the same message that this was only about drugs, not regime change. When U.S. forces struck Venezuela’s capital, it became clear the operation was far bigger than officials claimed.
Murphy admitted that there are “evil, brutal dictators all over the world,” but that doesn’t mean the American president can just invade their countries. He warned that “warmongering neocons” in the White House are pushing the country into war by claiming they need to remove bad leaders.
“That ends up getting a lot of Americans killed,” Murphy said, referring to past wars that started with similar justifications.
Published: Jan 5, 2026 01:16 pm