Why Democrats distrust Trump’s Venezuela briefers
Plus: Pete Hegseth’s move to review Mark Kelly’s military rank, the status of Minnesota’s 2026 map after Tim Walz bows out, and House appropriators release next funding package.
First Things First
Senior Trump officials briefed top national security lawmakers this evening on Venezuela, with an all-members briefing for both chambers expected to soon follow.
But many Democrats will head into those classified presentations with deep skepticism about the conclusions they’ll hear and whether the administration can credibly back them up.
House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) has in the past been critical of Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO, Secretary of Defense PETE HEGSETH and Attorney General PAM BONDI—three of the five officials who briefed the members as complicit in what he perceives as corrupt and blatant executive overreach. But he told me before the briefing that House and Senate Democrats would press each administration official for answers on why the operation was undertaken without congressional authorization and on their future plans for Venezuela.
“Donald Trump had the nerve to dismiss the popular opposition leader of Venezuela, said that she was not popular, did not have the support of the Venezuelan people. Donald Trump does not have the support of the American people,” Jeffries added. “He’s historically unpopular, and yet he’s questioning the legitimacy of who should actually succeed the deposed former president of Venezuela? So there are a lot of questions that need to be answered today by the highest levels of the administration and later on this week, when the entire House and the entire Senate will be briefed.”
