During recent hearings on the Trump administration’s Venezuela operation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio forcefully rebutted an argument from Senator Rand Paul.
Sen. Paul claimed the administration had violated the Constitution by forcefully removing an elected official from another country. Rubio quickly countered that Nicolás Maduro was not a legitimately elected leader, whose rule rests on widely acknowledged rigged elections, and noted that Maduro has also been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges.
"I think we are in violation of both the spirit and the law of the Constitution by bombing a capital, blockading a country, and removing an elected official," Paul said. "And we certainly wouldn't tolerate it, nor would I, if someone did it to us."
"So we didn't remove an elected official," Rubio replied. "We removed someone who was not elected and who was actually an indicted drug trafficker in the United States.
"Our laws. Indicted under our laws," Sen. Paul said.
Look, Bolsonaro says that Da Silva is not really the president of Brazil. Our president said Biden wasn't really the president. Hillary Clinton said in 2016, Trump wasn't the president. So you have these arguments, and I agree with you. It probably was, and most likely was, and most assuredly was a bad election, and he (Maduro) wasn't really elected. But at the same time, if that's our predicate and you have to come to us cause its a drug bust, we're just removing somebody, you can see where it leads to. And it leads to chaos. And that's why we have rules like the Constitution, so we don't get so far out there that presidents can do whatever they want. It is this check and balance, and I would argue for 70 years we've been going the wrong way. This isn't just this president, but it's a debate that I think is worth having.
🚨 BREAKING: Sec. Marco Rubio CLAPS BACK at Rand Paul opposing the Venezuela attacks
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 28, 2026
PAUL: We violated the Constitution, removed an elected official!
RUBIO: We did NOT remove an elected official! We removed an unelected, indicted DRUG TRAFFICKER! 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Jr8QyL5d9Z
Unfortunately for Paul, the operation in Venezuela has not sparked chaos. In fact, it has allowed the United States to reassert itself on the global stage as a force to be reckoned with and the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere.
While previous foreign interventions have failed spectacularly, their failures were largely the result of poor leadership. Meanwhile, Democrats and some self-styled conservatives continue to fearmonger about foreign entanglements, but they have yet to identify a Trump-led operation that has produced a “forever war” or triggered a wider conflict.
Maybe if Congress acted quickly and decisively in America’s interest, President Trump wouldn’t have to take matters into his own hands. But until that happens, decisive leadership from the executive branch remains the only reliable way to protect U.S. interests and assert American power on the world stage.