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Secretary Marco Rubio insisted the U.S. has a plan for post-transition governing in Venezuela, pushing back on criticism from Democrats who say the Trump administration moved faster to capture leader Nicolás Maduro than to outline what would follow.
In remarks to reporters on Capitol Hill after briefing Congress Wednesday, Rubio said the plan consists of three phases: stabilization, recovery and transition.
Democrats who attended classified briefings in the House and Senate said they left unconvinced the administration had a detailed roadmap for what comes next.
"I heard no detailed plan," said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
The dispute reflects a debate over whether the Trump administration has a coherent strategy for governing Venezuela after the removal of Maduro, or whether U.S. policy is being driven primarily by military and economic leverage without a defined political end state.
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"This is not just winging it," Rubio said, rejecting claims the administration lacked a strategy beyond the initial operation. "It’s already happening."
"I was in the Senate. When the other party is in power, that’s always what they say."
The first phase, Rubio said, focuses on stabilizing the country and preventing chaos, a goal he said would be enforced largely through U.S. control of Venezuela’s oil exports.
"As you’ve seen today, we are in the midst right now, and in fact about to execute on a deal to take all the oil they have that’s stuck in Venezuela. They can’t move it because of our sanctions," Rubio said. "That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is disbursed — in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime."
Rubio said the administration expects to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil as part of that effort.
The second phase, which Rubio described as "recovery," would include ensuring American and other Western companies have fair access to Venezuela’s oil markets, while also releasing political prisoners, granting amnesty, allowing exiled opposition figures to return and beginning to rebuild civil society.
The third phase — the transition — was less clearly defined.
"In the end, it will be up to the Venezuelan people to transform their country," Rubio said.
Rubio did not outline a timeline for elections or describe how a future Venezuelan government would be selected.
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One lawmaker who attended the House’s briefing told Fox News Digital there was "very clear recognition" by Trump officials that current remaining figures in the Venezuelan government "are all in finger-pointing mode."
"You’ve got individuals who are now jockeying for power. They're trying to coalesce people … and we’re having to navigate that," that House lawmaker said.
But most Republicans who attended the briefings largely defended the administration’s approach, though some acknowledged uncertainty about what comes next.
"No, we don’t know what comes next," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. "We have a plan. It’s like Mike Tyson said: ‘Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.’"
Other Republicans said Rubio’s presentation showed extensive preparation.
"If people could hear everything that we just heard, I think they’d have renewed confidence in both the planning leading up to it and the planning going forward," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said, "I thought it was a good briefing, timely. It was good that we hit that quickly, and (got a) very thorough explanation."
"I think what was uniting was that everyone supports our military and, you know, you can't deny how effectively it was done," Davidson told Fox News Digital.
Questions over the transition were heightened after President Donald Trump publicly questioned whether opposition leader María Corina Machado has sufficient support inside Venezuela to govern, even as she remains a favored figure among Western governments.
The administration also raised eyebrows when it appeared to signal openness to the ascendance of Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, rather than immediately backing Machado and opposition figure Edmundo González.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration believes it has decisive influence over how Rodríguez rules the country, even if she is affiliated with Maduro’s communist regime.
"We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now," Leavitt said Wednesday.
Multiple lawmakers who attended the briefings told Fox News Digital the administration did not share a timeline for new elections.
"There’s no playbook for this," Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., said. "There’s a goal I have in mind, and I’m pretty sure the administration shares that goal — to get to a free and democratic Venezuela."
Some Republicans acknowledged the transition would take time and ultimately would involve elections.
"We are four days in. It’s going to take time," said Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont. "Eventually we want to see Machado and the opposition movement, hopefully, be elected again."
Democrats said the briefings left them with unanswered questions about the administration’s objectives and endgame.
"I emerged having more questions than they had answered," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "The main question is, what is our objective and what is our exit strategy?"
Blumenthal also questioned the continued military posture in the region.
"We continue to have about one-fifth of our naval strength in that area," he said. "If this is a law enforcement function, why are we continuing to have all of this military strength in the area when we’ve already apprehended the target?"
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital, "They were not forthright, and we know that they've been lying about this whole operation the whole time. But the problem with lying is you don't really know exactly when they're lying."
He said the House briefing "only decreased my confidence in this administration for their ability to either tell the truth or know what the hell they're doing."
Other Democrats warned the administration’s approach risks repeating past U.S. mistakes abroad.
"This is an insane plan," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "They’re talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for an undefined period of time as leverage to micromanage the country."
Murphy said the strategy amounted to using economic force to drive regime change without a clear end state.
"An embargo is an act of force," he said. "They are going to take the oil for as long as is necessary in order to try to facilitate regime change in Venezuela."
"That sounds like a recipe for disaster," Murphy added. "It is just slightly different than the mistakes we made in Iraq and Afghanistan."
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