by Laura Kelly
Jan 28, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio went off script in his opening statement to senators during a hearing on the administration’s plans for Venezuela after ousting its longtime leader.
In prepared remarks, he warned lawmakers that the Trump administration is ready to take new military action against Venezuela if the country’s interim leadership defies U.S. expectations.
“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio wrote in prepared remarks submitted to the committee, according to The Associated Press.
“It is our hope that this will not prove necessary, but we will never shy away from our duty to the American people and our mission in this hemisphere.”
Rubio appeared for a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on U.S. policy toward Venezuela, coming less than a month since President Trump launched an audacious military operation capturing Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and claiming the country’s oil industry.
Rubio’s appearance before the committee is the first time a senior administration official will publicly testify on Trump’s controversial policy in Latin America, launching a major, months-long military operation against suspected drug trafficking boats and capturing the Venezuelan leader.
Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, defended Trump’s decision to remove Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S. In his prepared remarks, he argued for continuing deadly military strikes on boats suspected of drug smuggling, seizing sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil and rejected allegations that Trump is violating the constitution by taking such actions.
“There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country,” he said. “There are no U.S. troops on the ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement.”
During his unscripted opening remarks, he said elections in Venezuela were the “endgame,” but said the road there would not be easy.
“The end state here is we want to reach a phase of transition where we are left with a friendly, stable, prosperous Venezuela — and democratic, in which all elements of society are represented in free and fair elections,” he said.
Republicans have largely stood behind Trump’s push to exert greater military force in the Western Hemisphere, although a move by Democrats to constrain the president’s ability to launch new military operations has gained some GOP support.
Five Republicans joined all Democrats earlier this month to advance a war powers resolution that would require the president to come to Congress for authorization for further military action against Venezuela. But Republicans backed off that effort in a second vote, with two GOP senators voting against a final vote on the resolution.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explained his decision to flip his vote against the war powers resolution, saying he received a commitment from Trump that the president would come to Congress to ask for a formal authorization if “American forces were needed in major military operations in Venezuela.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member on the committee, pushed back on Rubio, saying in prepared remarks that cooperation from Maduro’s deputy, now Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez, is “tactical and temporary.”
Rodríguez on Sunday said she has had “enough” of taking orders from the U.S.
Shaheen argued that Trump is spending “billions” on Venezuela, turning away from focusing on American issues of affordability and, through the administration’s funding cuts, weakening America’s security apparatus.
“From Venezuela to Europe, the United States is spending more, risking more and achieving less,” Shaheen said.
“And everyday Americans are paying the price, both at the grocery store and in a more chaotic and less safe world. That does not project strength. It hands our adversaries exactly what they want.”
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