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Democratic<\/a> leaders responded with fury on Sunday to Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s military intervention in Venezuela<\/a>, slamming it as an illegal act carried out in the absence<\/a> of required congressional approval that would lead to disaster for the American people.<\/p>\n Top Democrats took to the Sunday TV political talk shows to express their dismay at the lack of any prior notification of lawmakers about the audacious military raid<\/a> 24 hours earlier.<\/p>\n They portrayed the action to unseat the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, as unlawful under the US constitution and ill-advised in terms of the US standing in the world, where numerous authorities, including<\/a> the secretary general of the United Nations, have accused the US of breaching<\/a> the UN\u2019s founding charter.<\/p>\n \u201cThey literally lied to our face,\u201d said Chris Murphy, a US senator from Connecticut, on Sunday, referring to a briefing on Venezuela that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, gave to his chamber last month. \u201cThe message they sent was that this wasn\u2019t about regime change \u2026 They said this is just a counter-narcotics operation.\u201d<\/p>\n In an appearance on CNN\u2019s State of the Union, Murphy called the action in Venezuela<\/a> in the early hours of Saturday \u201cwildly illegal\u201d, adding: \u201cThere is no way to trust this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the US constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires presidents<\/a> to seek approval from Congress for military engagements.<\/p>\n Yet in the case of Saturday\u2019s dawn bombardment<\/a> on Venezuela and military landing to snatch Maduro, not even the \u201cgang of eight\u201d, the top congressional leaders of both main parties who are traditionally consulted on national security issues, were notified about the operation.<\/p>\n \u201cStill haven\u2019t got a phone call,\u201d said Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. He told CNN: \u201cI\u2019m a member of the gang of eight, and I have yet to get a phone call from anyone from the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid widespread condemnation of Maduro\u2019s dictatorship and defiance of international laws, Democrats nevertheless decried the Trump administration\u2019s unilateral intervention in the South American country.<\/p>\n Himes lambasted the military operation, which he dubbed an \u201cimperial adventure\u201d, as \u201canother example of absolute lawlessness on the part of this administration\u201d. He accused Trump of \u201cpaving the way for disaster\u201d and \u201cnot giving a hoot about the US congress\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump and his inner circle have attempted to justify the bypassing of Congress in the snatching of Maduro by portraying it as a law enforcement and counter-narcotics operation rather than a military strike. Top Democrats<\/a> said that was dissembling.<\/p>\n Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the Democrats in the House of Representatives, told NBC News\u2019s Meet the Press that the Venezuela action \u201cwas an act of war. This was a military action involving Delta Force, involving the army, apparently involving thousands of troops, involving at least 150 military aircraft.\u201d Rubio has denied it was war.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s ostracisation of Congress dramatically raises the stakes in next week\u2019s vote in the US Senate on a bipartisan war powers resolution<\/a>. It seeks to block the administration from launching any further military hostilities against Venezuela without express approval of congress.<\/p>\n The debate is privileged, meaning it cannot be halted by the Republican leadership, and needs only a simple majority to pass. It has the backing of Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky who has been a thorn in the president\u2019s side over foreign policy.<\/p>\n Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, is another sponsor of the war powers resolution. He told This Week on ABC News that if the measure gains a majority vote in both chambers, \u201cthen the president can\u2019t do another thing in Venezuela without the okay of Congress\u201d.<\/p>\n Schumer painted Saturday\u2019s action, and Trump\u2019s claim<\/a> that Venezuela would be run by the US for now, in apocalyptic terms. \u201cWe have learned through the years, when America tries to do regime change and nation building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n He said it amounted to the exact opposite of what Trump had promised in the course of the 2024 presidential election campaign. \u201cThe very thing that Donald Trump<\/a> campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars, and right now we\u2019re headed right into one with no barriers, with no discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n