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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dismissed the idea of the U.S. going to war against Venezuela, even as his administration’s strikes against vessels in the region and decision to move a carrier strike group to the area have raised speculation.
At the same time, Trump did not rule out land strikes in the Latin American country, declining to detail any plans, but said he believed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro could soon be out of power.
“I doubt it, I don’t think so,” Trump said when asked in an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that was conducted Friday and aired Sunday if the U.S. was going to war with Venezuela.
He went on to reiterate his frequently expressed criticisms of the Venezuela, including that it has “emptied their prisons into our country” — for which there is no evidence to support — and is facilitating the flow of drugs into the U.S.
Asked then if his moves in the region were about stopping the flow of drugs or ousting Maduro, the president said they were about “many things,” not rejecting the idea that getting rid of the Venezuelan leader — whom the U.S. has brought narcoterrorism charges against — was involved. He responded affirmatively when asked if Maduro’s days as Venezuela’s leader are numbered.
“I would say yeah, I think so, yeah,” Trump said.
Trump would not say, however, whether he would escalate the strikes his administration has been carrying out against vessels in the region to target land in Venezuela but suggested his answer shouldn’t be taken as a signal of where he is leaning either way.
“I’m not saying it’s true or untrue,” Trump said before stressing that he wouldn’t talk to a reporter about such a potential move.
Over the last two months the Trump administration has carried out more than a dozen strikes against vessels at sea that it says were smuggling drugs from places such as Venezuela, with the latest announcement of another boat being hit coming just this weekend. The strikes began mostly on ships in the Caribbean near Venezuela but have expanded recently to the eastern Pacific.
The attacks have killed more than 60 people, according to figures shared by the administration when announcing each hit, and has been presented as a key part of Trump’s declared war on cartels. The president in the interview stressed his belief that Venezuela in particular has “been treating us very badly” when it comes to drugs and noted the role of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The repeated strikes have raised some concern on Capitol Hill about the administration’s authority to wage them without Congress’ involvement as well as whether it has sufficient intelligence about who it is targeting and evidence that the boats are carrying drugs. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who blasted the administration last week for what he said was Democrats being left out of a briefing on the strikes given to Republican senators, encouraged it in an interview over the weekend to “come clean” about the legal basis and justifications for the attacks.
“And the fact is, if, as the administration says, these are all bad guys, and yeah, they’re all drugs on these boats, interdict these boats and show the world,” Warner said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, argued in an interview on Fox News on Sunday that the administration has briefed top lawmakers of both parties, known as the “Gang of Eight,” and has “exquisite intelligence” about the strikes that is “reliable.” He said, however, that he could not get into classified information.
Along with the strikes, the administration’s move to build a robust U.S. military presence in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, including its decision to deploy the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Latin American region, has stirred up talks about whether Trump is preparing to escalate efforts. Asked about the moves last week, a close ally of the president, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called U.S. land strikes in Venezuela a “real possibility” and said he believes Trump has made a decision regarding Maduro that it’s “time for him to go.”
Trump has also said he authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela.
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Maddie Gannon
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