Tag: North Carolina Senate

WASHINGTON

North Carolina’s Republican Senate candidates support President Donald Trump’s decision to raid Venezuela and take captive the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

The Trump administration faced immediate backlash for Saturday morning’s attack, including over accusations that the raid violated international laws and for failing to seek congressional approval.

Republicans have largely supported Trump, and many on the right, like Republican Senate candidate Michele Morrow, are unfazed by those complaints.

“I think President Trump’s actions were just a fabulous development in removing a narco-terrorist dictator out of Venezuela,” Morrow said. “It’s not only been incredibly beneficial to the people of Venezuela, but also to the people of the United States.”

Trump ordered, Friday, a large-scale attack on Venezuela in order to capture 63-year-old Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Saturday morning.

Who is Maduro?

Maduro became president of Venezuela in 2013 following the death of President Hugo Chávez. But the country quickly experienced severe economic decline and political crisis, leading to attempts to remove him from office.

Instead of addressing the problems, the government killed people who pointed them out. The United Nations reported more than 5,000 extrajudicial deaths in 2018, according to The New York Times.

In 2020, the Trump administration indicted Maduro, accusing him of participating in drug operations. On Monday, Maduro pleaded not guilty to an expanded indictment that includes four drug and weapons charges.

In 2024, then-President Joe Biden accused Maduro of stealing an election, and the United States listed him as a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

Tillis and candidates weigh in

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, currently serves as North Carolina’s senior senator, but chose not to seek reelection following his current term that expires in January 2027.

In a social media post Sunday, Tillis called Maduro the leader of a “narco-terrorist regime,” accusing the Venezuelan leader of fueling the U.S. drug trade.

“President Trump’s decisive action will finally bring this dictator to justice and end the decades of corruption and crime in Venezuela,” Tillis wrote. “Thank you to the brave U.S. service members and law enforcement officials who were involved in this important mission to bring an end to tyranny.”

There are 13 people looking to succeed Tillis in the Senate. Many see former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley as the frontrunners, though author and former JAG officer Don Brown and educator Michele Morrow are contenders against Whatley.

Neither Cooper nor Whatley spoke to McClatchy for this article, though Cooper sent a written statement, focusing in on statements Trump made in a news conference Saturday morning about taking over Venezuela’s oil industry.

“While North Carolina families are facing high costs and health care challenges, this administration is risking American lives in a foreign country for big oil company profits — all with no exit strategy,” Cooper said. “If drug trafficking was the real reason, Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley would have objected to the President’s pardons of convicted drug traffickers. Instead Whatley is cheering because he knows this is about oil profits, not public safety.”

Whatley praised Trump’s action in Venezuela in a social media post.

“Under President Trump, the United States will no longer accept poison flowing through our borders and killing Americans,” Whatley wrote on social media. “He has taken decisive and aggressive action to dismantle the criminal networks responsible for addiction, violence, and death no matter where they operate or how powerful they claim to be.”

Both Brown and Morrow offered their opinions on the weekend’s capture, including one piece Tillis didn’t mention in his written statement: whether Trump should have sought congressional approval before striking Venezuela.

Congressional approval

Morrow said she didn’t believe congressional authorization was necessary.

“There was no need because this was not an act of war,” Morrow said. “This was an act of law enforcement.”

Brown said he was looking forward to learning more about the attack Monday. He added that he believes Trump acted “on legitimate legal grounds” under Article II of the Constitution, which outlines the executive branch’s powers.

“I’m a constitutional lawyer,” Brown said. “There’s nothing in the United States Constitution that says the president of the United States needs congressional approval.”

Brown added that if Trump sought congressional approval it would have revealed his battle plan, “which is ridiculous.”

“I would not have wanted Trump to seek congressional approval to strike on Venezuela, because if you do that, you’re signaling your intent to the enemy and you’re probably costing American lives,” Brown said.

Venezuelan response

Morrow honed in on the reaction of those Venezuelans who cheered Maduro’s capture.

“They are so incredibly thankful because the United States has taken away somebody who has taken away their lives and their livelihood,” Morrow said.

The hopeful reaction among Maduro’s opponents has been mixed with uncertainty, and while many who left the country under his regime celebrated openly, some in the country were still too afraid to provide their full names to media outlets like BBC.

War on drugs

Both Brown and Morrow focused on the impact Maduro’s capture could have on the lives of Americans.

“When we look at the millions of Americans that have died from fentanyl overdose and other drugs, the people of the United States of America expect that our president and our federal government is protecting us from dangerous people, foreign and domestic,” Morrow said. “That is what their No. 1 job is and that is what President Trump is doing.”

Brown also focused on U.S. fentanyl deaths.

“We’ve lost more Americans in one year to fentanyl than 10 years to the Vietnam War,” Brown said. “So these drugs are a weapon of mass destruction and I fully approve of what the president has done.”

He added that the operation was executed flawlessly.

“The force went in and was able to snatch this guy out without any damage, any harm to Americans or any deaths, and without any damage to American equipment,” Brown said.

This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 6:16 PM.