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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday, I joined with House and Senate leaders for a briefing with Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth, Attorney General Bondi, and other officials about what comes next in Venezuela and beyond.

For 2 long hours, we heard yesterday from the administration. And what we heard was little more than wishful thinking and no real answers. We got no clear answer to any of the four questions I have been asking the administration for days:

First, how many troops are we going to commit to Venezuela? Are there any limits? No answer.

Second, for how long would we be committed to running Venezuela? No answer.

Third, how much is this all going to cost? They said they had no cost estimate.

And fourth, what country is next? Is Colombia on the table? Are we going to invade a NATO ally like Greenland? Where does this belligerence stop? I was very troubled--very troubled--by their answer on this as well.

Sitting in yesterday's briefing, it is clear the administration pulled the trigger on step 1 of their plan in Venezuela without figuring out how they are going to follow through on steps 2 to 10.

How do you enter a country and remove its leader by force without knowing anything about what happens after?

The current Vice President for Venezuela now says she may cooperate with the United States, but her grip on power is weak. She has many rivals in government, and her reputation for steadfastness and honesty leaves much to be desired. And all of the remaining regime leaders in Venezuela are so corrupt that it is naive for the administration to think we can rely on any of them to maintain stability.

Now, this is how we get into endless wars. The administration has a 1-day plan on how to get rid of Maduro but no idea of what happens after. It is what happened to us in Iraq. Yes, this is how we get into endless wars: a 1-day plan to get rid of Maduro but no idea what happens after. Look at history. Look at Iraq. Look at so many other places. This is what leads to endless wars.

And last night, Donald Trump added to the fires of confusion once again.

He was asked who exactly is in charge in Venezuela, and he simply said, ``Me.'' Donald Trump. A lot of macho going on there.

How the hell does Donald Trump expect to exert direct control over Venezuela? We have so many problems here at home--people who are struggling to make ends meet when the economy is slowing down and costs are going up. Yesterday, Donald Trump even suggested we might spend up to 18 months in Venezuela rebuilding its oil infrastructure. And that is probably a low estimate according to most experts. Most experts think it could take easily longer than that, the Venezuela oil fields are such a mess. And are you kidding me? How are we going to spend 18 months and potentially tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money in Venezuela at a time when people here at home don't even have basic healthcare?

There are also reports that Stephen Miller might be heavily involved in the governance of Venezuela. I asked about this at our briefing, and the answers were very troubling. This is the same Stephen Miller who yesterday went to CNN and asserted that Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States and nobody will fight the U.S. military over Greenland.

What is going on here? What kind of venture is this?

The language Miller used comes right out of the 1930s, directed by a senior official of the United States against a NATO ally. God help us and the future of world order.

Donald Trump has opened a Pandora's box. We have to take seriously that, after Venezuela, he may attack other nations without warning-- maybe Colombia, maybe even a NATO ally like Greenland run by Denmark. All the while, how does any of this belligerence in Venezuela or Greenland put America first?

How does any of this help people here at home pay the bills, pay for their healthcare, put a roof over their heads, pay for their groceries or their energy bill? The American people voted for Donald Trump to put America first. That is what he campaigned on. A lot of his most hard- right supporters voted for him because he was ``America First.''

Well, ``America First'' means focusing on healthcare costs and all kinds of rising costs here at home, instead of using taxpayer dollars to build up the oil fields in Venezuela. It means helping American farmers instead of bailing out Argentinian farmers. It means bringing manufacturing back to our shores instead of giving critical chips away to China.

It means helping people pay their rent, pay their mortgage, pay their energy bill, instead of launching an attack on foreign countries and putting our troops in danger.

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