Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday addressed the surprising U.S. attack on Venezuela and said the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was illegal.
“Maduro is a horrible, horrible person, but you don’t treat anarchy with another anarchy, and that’s what happened here,” Schumer told “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos. “There is no authority…they not only pulled ships out of the water. They entered Venezuela, they bombed civilian and military sites, and it is a violation of the law to do what they did without obtaining authorization from Congress.”
Despite President Donald Trump’s claims Saturday that the United States was “going to govern” Venezuela “until such time as we can make a safe, proper and judicious transition,” the Democratic senator told Stephanopoulos that “no one knows” who is governing Venezuela right now.
“The American people this morning, George, are scratching their heads in amazement and fear at what the president has proposed,” Schumer said. “We have learned over the years that when the United States attempts to achieve regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and dollars.”
Schumer expressed skepticism that American oil companies could fix Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a claim Trump made after the attack.
“It seems like kind of a backwards operation, at least from what people have been told,” Schumer said. “These oil fields have been in bad shape for years. We have no idea how long it’s going to take, how much it’s going to cost and whether we need military troops to guard the oil fields while we do it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks with ABC News while appearing on This Week, January 4, 2026.
ABC News
Schumer also criticized Trump’s involvement in Venezuela after his frequent campaign promises to avoid conflicts abroad.
“The American people are worried that this is creating an endless war. The very thing Donald Trump campaigned against over and over again was not more endless wars. And right now, we are headed straight for one, no barriers, no discussion,” he argued.
Trump’s statement follows the overnight mission in which a US military extraction team, supported by more than 150 military aircraft, headed to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and arrived at the compound where Maduro and his wife were staying. The team then took the couple to the USS Iwo Jima warship before taking them to New York City, where Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism and drug trafficking.
Here are more highlights from Schumer’s interview.
Overdue Obamacare Insurance Premiums
“We passed legislation to renew them for three years, and the Republicans blocked it at every turn. They are a disaster. They are a disaster. [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune has said he will not renew them. [House Speaker Mike] Johnson has said they won’t…so it’s the Republicans [who] I have ruined this. “If they can find a way out of this mess, we want to work with anyone to lower prices.”
If there will be another government shutdown
“No. There are two separate tracks here. Democrats want to fund appropriations, spending bills through 2026. We want to work in a bicameral, bipartisan way to do that. And the good news is that our Republican appropriators are working with us and we’re making good progress there.”
