The MeidasTouch Podcast - Dems Strike Back After Trump Invasion

Episode Date: January 3, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the response by Democrats like AOC, Senator Murphy, and others responding to Donald Trump’s unlawful invasion of Venezuela. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast⁠ Legal AF: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af⁠ MissTrial: ⁠https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial⁠ The PoliticsGirl Podcast: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast⁠ Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan⁠ Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen⁠ The Weekend Show: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show⁠ Burn the Boats: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats⁠ Majority 54: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54⁠ Political Beatdown: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown⁠ On Democracy with FP Wellman: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman⁠ Uncovered: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats and political leaders are responding to Donald Trump's unlawful invasion of Venezuela and Donald Trump's press conference from Mara Lago, where Trump says the United States will now be running Venezuela, that the purpose of the invasion of Venezuela was to seize the oil and take it over for the American oil companies. Donald Trump also threw the main Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado under the bus. He says that she's a nice lady, but that the people in Venezuela don't respect her. She was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, who then praised Donald Trump. And now he's throwing her under the bus and says she shouldn't run it.

Donald Trump says that he and the United States will be running a country of 28 million people right now. We'll see what the Venezuelan people are saying about that. But let's talk about what Congress is saying about that. Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Senate and independents in the House and the Center are calling this an unlawful invasion that Donald Trump did not get the congressional authority that was required of this. And while Maduro is a dictator, which inherently means he's not legitimate, the United States can't just be engaged in regime change to seize oil and to run countries. It has a massive destabilizing effect on the world. Number two,

It's just a war crime, and it is unlawful in general. And also it gives a permission structure for China to invade Taiwan, for Russia to continue its atrocities in Ukraine, for Israel to continue atrocities in Gaza. It provides a permission structure right now for tyrants and dictators to continue about their authoritarian reign. So here's what AOC postage goes, it's not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn't have part in one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world last month. It's about oil and regime change, and they need a trial now to pretend that it isn't, especially to distract from his sinking under Epstein and skyrocketing health care costs. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, a veteran himself who saw close friends of his die during war,

says the neocons have moved their focus to the Caribbean. And he's responding to someone who goes, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I would be concerned at least a little bit, Rubio said of Cuba because Donald Trump during his disastrous press conference threatened Cuba. Donald Trump threatened Colombia. And Donald Trump said that he was instituting a Donrodoctrine,

he said, to control and with a iron, fist the Western Hemisphere and to treat every other country as a vassal state in the Western Hemisphere. Senator Gallego goes on to say, I said Trump wanted to start a war and now he's saying we're going to occupy Venezuela. Enough. I authored a war powers resolution to hold the Trump administration accountable for its illegal actions in Venezuela. I'm going to force a vote. Only Congress has the authority to take this country to war. Ruben Gallego also said, says, so we went to war to capture Maduro, to occupy Venezuela. That's Donald Trump's own words.

That's what Trump said during the press conference. We want to seize the oil for the big oil companies. That's why we're there. The oil belongs to us. And then again, he threw the opposition leader under the bus. Senator Gallego responds to Carrie Lake, remember her. She's still out there as a member of the Trump regime. And she goes, you're a part of a member of the Mexican,

cartel family. You're a fraud. No one is surprised by your take to which Senator Gallego says, I am a U.S. Marine Combat veteran that saw his best friend die because of bootlickers like you. This line of attack is exactly why you lost by the most of any GOP candidate in 2024. Another veteran, pilot, astronaut, who the Trump regime is attacking as well and launching criminal investigations into Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona put out the following statement. The President of the United States just overthrew a foreign ruler and explained to the American people that this is about taking control of the oil reserves of a foreign nation. He said that the U.S. will, quote, run the country until a proper transition can take place

and went right into how U.S. oil companies will benefit from this takeover. He doesn't understand the risks and costs involved with these poorly thought out decisions that don't make Americans any safer today than they were yesterday. Nicholas Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator who deserves to face justice. I want the people of Venezuela to be free to choose their own future. But if we learned anything from the Iraq War, it's the dropping bombs or toppling a leader doesn't guarantee democracy, stability, or make America safer. More often it leads to chaos or drags the U.S. into a war and lengthy occupation.

I don't trust that this administration has a plan, timeline, or price tag of what comes next. Over the past year, Trump's foreign policy has been reckless, chaotic, self-serving, and unconstitutional. Congress should vote this week to reassert its authority on behalf of the American people before he oversteps again. I also want to recognize the professionalism and skill of American service members involved in this operation. While I don't agree with this administration's justification for this, I'm thankful that no service members were killed or seriously injured. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy put out the following statement. President Trump thinks he's above the law.

He steals from taxpayers. He thumbs his nose at the law. And now he is starting an illegal war with Venezuela that America didn't ask for and has nothing to do with our security. How does going to war in South America help regular Americans who are struggling? How does this do anything about drugs entering the U.S. when Venezuela produces no fentanyl? What is the actual security threat to the United States? And what happens next in Venezuela?

He cannot answer these questions. And that's why there was no briefing to Congress to explain this action and no briefing scheduled. And Maduro's illegitimate election does not give the president power to invade without congressional approval, nor does it create a national security justification. That contention is laughable. This is about satisfying Trump's vanity, making good on the longstanding neocon grudge against Maduro, enriching Trump's oil industry backers, and distracting voters from Epstein and rising cost. J.D. Vance is like, and the PSA for everyone saying this was illegal, Maduro had multiple indictments in the United States for narco-terrorism,

to which Senator Murphy responds, laughable? There are people with warrants all over the world. Can you invade all those countries without coming to Congress? If carrying out a rest requires the full-scale invasion of a foreign nation, of course you need to get congressional authorization. And of course, the fact that Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the drug trafficking narco-terrorist from Honduras, who was convicted by a federal jury in the United States, shows that Donald Trump just frankly wants to seize the event. Venezuelan oil. That's what this is all about. Senator Bernie Sanders put out the following statement. Donald Trump has once again shown his contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. The President of the United States does not have the right to unilaterally take this country to war even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro.

The United States does not have the right, as Trump stated this morning, to run Venezuela. Congress must immediately pass a war powers resolution to end this illegal military operation and reassert. its constitutional responsibilities. Trump's attack on Venezuela will make the United States and the world less safe. This brazen violation of international law gives a green light to any nation on earth that may wish to attack another country to seize their resources or change their governments. This is the horrific logic of force that Putin used to justify his brutal attack on Ukraine. Trump and his administration have often said they want to revive the Monroe Doctrine,

claiming the United States has the right to dominate the affairs of this hemisphere. They have spoken openly about controlling Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world. This is rank imperialism. It recalls the darkest chapters of U.S. interventions in Latin America, which have left a terrible legacy. It will and should be condemned by the democratic world. Trump campaigned for president on an America first platform. He claimed to be the peace candidate.

at a time when 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, when our health care system is collapsing, when people cannot afford housing, and when AI threatens millions of jobs, it is time for the president to focus on the crises facing this country and end this military adventurism abroad. Trump is failing in his job to run the United States. He should not be trying to run Venezuela. Now, Mark Warner, the top Democratic senator on the Intelligence Committee put out the following statement. Our Constitution places the gravest decision about the use of military force in the hands of Congress for a reason. Using military force to enact regime change demands the closest scrutiny precisely because the consequences do not end with the initial strike. If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders, it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership.

What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it. None of this absolves Maduro. He is a corrupt authoritarian who has repressed his people, stolen elections, imprison political opponents, and presided over a humanitarian catastrophe. that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee. The Venezuelan people deserve democratic leadership

and the United States and the international community should have done far more years ago to press for a peaceful transition after Maduro lost a vote of his own citizens. But recognizing Maduro's crimes does not give any president the authority to ignore the Constitution. The hypocrisy underlying this decision

is especially glaring. The same president recently pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in a U.S. court on serious drug trafficking charges, including conspiring with narcotics traffickers while in office. Yet now the administration claims that similar allegations justify the use of military force against another sovereign nation. You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case while issuing a pardon in another.

America's strength comes from our commitment to the rule of law, democratic norms, constitutional restraints, when we abandon those principles, even in the name of confronting bad actors, we weaken our credibility, endanger global stability, and invite abuses of power that will long outlast any single presidency. Look, even Marjorie Taylor Green is posting, this is what many in MAGA thought we voted to end, she goes on to say, boy, were we wrong, she says. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think.

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