Nevada delegation slams Trump over Maduro capture

President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. Photo by: Alex Brandon / Associated Press

Democrats in Nevada’s federal delegation are sounding alarms about the military operation this morning that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country, saying President Donald Trump acted “without the input of the American people through their representatives in Congress.”

“Nicolás Maduro was a brutal dictator who deserves no sympathy,” U.S. Sen Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., posted on social media. “But the Trump Administration using American service members to overthrow a foreign leader it has criminally indicted under U.S. law sets a dangerous precedent.”

Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital. Maduro’s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets.

The attack lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they’d seen and heard.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured in Venezuela but he believed none were killed.

The legal authority for the attack, which echoed the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, was not immediately clear.

“The Constitution is clear: only Congress has the power to declare war and authorize the use of military force in other nations, especially when there is no imminent threat to U.S. national security that requires immediate presidential action,” U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., posted on social media.

Rosen added, “The decision to jeopardize the safety of our brave men and women in this way is a heavy responsibility that cannot be made without the input of the American people through their representatives in Congress.”

The charges against Maduro include narco-terrorism, cocaine importation, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and related conspiracy counts.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Maduro “is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

Trump claimed those drugs killed thousands of Americans — a figure that has not been independently verified and may be exaggerated.

“This illegal regime change operation won’t make our country safer and risks destabilizing the region, dragging us into additional military conflicts, and increasing the amount of immigrants seeking refuge at our border,” Rosen posted.

Rosen and Cortez Masto each urged lawmakers to act on the War Powers Resolution, a bipartisan proposal from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to “block the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.”

“I support Senator Tim Kaine’s bipartisan War Powers resolution to make it clear the President cannot drag us into a war in Venezuela that the American people do not want. The Senate must vote on it as soon as possible,” Cortez Masto wrote.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., echoed her colleagues’ concerns, saying “the U.S. Constitution clearly ascribes the power to make decisions about war and peace to Congress, not the President.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.