President Donald Trump ordered a bold, surgical operation that U.S. officials say resulted in Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro being captured and flown out of the country, a hard-nosed move many Americans have been waiting years to see from a commander-in-chief who actually acts on threats to our homeland. The administration has framed the mission as law enforcement paired with military precision to bring a indicted narco-terrorist to American justice and to choke off the cartel networks tied to Maduro’s regime.
Senator Ruben Gallego erupted on Fox News, calling the administration’s failure to notify Congress beforehand “absolute BS,” a line grabbed by every headline-seeking Democrat desperate to weaponize process over results. Gallego’s performative fury ignores the real-world dangers that come with announcing sensitive counterterror and capture operations before they happen — a reality that can cost lives and let targets slip.
Washington’s left loves to lecture about oversight until it comes to protecting Americans from drugs and violence; then they suddenly discover concern for “process” while abandoning common sense. Senator Tom Cotton and other Republicans rightly pointed out that law enforcement operations — like FBI arrests of dangerous criminals — don’t come with a prior congressional RSVP, and national-security missions often require the same operational secrecy. If Democrats want results, they should stop whining and start supporting the men and women who keep our country safe.
Make no mistake: Maduro stands accused in U.S. courts of narco-terrorism and has long presided over the Cartel de los Soles that pours poison into American communities. Bringing him to face American justice isn’t an act of imperial fantasy; it’s a direct strike against the drug networks killing our kids and funding authoritarian regimes. The administration’s insistence that Maduro and his wife will be tried here underscores that this was a law-and-order action, not an ideological stunt.
Some allies and neighbors have voiced alarm, and diplomatic fallout will be real — so will the responsibility of Congress to conduct sober oversight after the fact rather than grandstanding in real time. Conservatives should insist on transparency and accountability without transforming every tactical necessity into a partisan circus; oversight after a safe completion of operations is the prudent path.
Patriots know the difference between bureaucratic hand-wringing and decisive leadership that protects American lives. If Democrats want to be taken seriously about national security, they’ll stop politicizing missions that dismantle narcotics cartels and put real criminals on a path to justice, and they’ll back the brave men and women who executed this operation rather than shriek into camera lights. The country deserves leaders who put safety and law above partisan theater.
