Unauthorized military action in Venezuela just latest egregious act by Trump and complicit Congress
Editor:
Yesterday, we saw another egregious act by our President. The sole purpose of this offense can be directly tied to the multitude of offenses by this Administration and its tag-along Congress.
Regime change is prevalent in our DNA, but it has never boded well for us or other countries. In fact, it is often destabilizing for a country and can cause irreparable harm in terms of the consequences and sometimes lead to civil wars.
The fact that Congress was not informed, and the President and his Administration lied in briefings to them by saying this was not going to lead to regime change. Senator Ruben Gallego repeatedly asked that question to Secretary Rubio and was told it was not.
We have removed President Maduro and his wife, flown them to New York where they will be held in a New York Detention Center in Brooklyn. I would say that is definitely regime change! Nobody should be a fan of Maduro and his corrupt government, but this brazen act was taken by President Trump and his administration.
We have a Congress, and under our Constitution, they have the sole power to declare war on a country. Why is that not respected and upheld, but instead mowed down by the ego and hubris of this President?
We have also witnessed the expected complicity by this Congress, including NY24 Rep. Claudia Tenney. Her statement praised the action of our government saying it “sends a clear message that the United States will stand firmly against tyranny and corruption that threaten US security in our hemisphere.” She also said that the Venezuelan people “now have the opportunity to pursue freedom and prosperity.”
This has absolutely nothing to do with the Venezuelans pursuit of freedom and prosperity, nor a stand against tyranny and corruption. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! It does, however, have everything to do with the grift of this President and his administration.
Once President Trump got off script in his press conference, he was not shy about revealing the reasons he did it either. He repeatedly said “we are running Venezuela now.” And when asked why, he made no bones about how “we’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries.”
He is on the take for himself and his cronies. We have no money to pay for healthcare in this country, or rising cost of groceries, but he and his oligarchs are lining their pockets with Venezuelan oil money.
So, I ask you, is this what we are asking our brave military to do now? Be the muscle behind the grift and corruption? It is shameful, that this President, would send our young men and women to wage a war for the benefit of the 1%. That is the reality of today’s actions. It is most disgraceful that those in Congress, such as our Rep. Claudia Tenney, play a shell game with the truth. She does not deserve to represent us.
Time for a change!
Diana Kastenbaum
Batavia
Kastenbaum is a candidate for the 24th Congressional District of New York.
