MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
We continue our coverage of the extraordinary news from Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro ousted. President Trump saying the U.S. will run Venezuela for now. Let's get a reaction to that from Congress. Representative Adam Smith of Washington state is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, welcome.
ADAM SMITH: Thank you for having me on. I appreciate the chance.
KELLY: I am gathering you are not a fan of today's attack. You wrote in a statement that you believe the Trump administration acted without a plan for what comes next. What's your top concern?
SMITH: Yeah. I mean, that's the top concern. And you heard that from President Trump today when he said, you know, we're going to be, quote, "running" Venezuela in the short term with no explanation of what that means or how it would be accomplished. And also, it's completely impossible in the current situation. As far as we know, we have no forces in Venezuela whatsoever to run anything. So...
KELLY: Although President Trump says he's not afraid of changing that and putting boots on the ground.
SMITH: Sure, and - but what he hasn't put forward is, OK, what's the plan? Where are those boots going to go? How are they going to secure the country? You know, what is the power structure now? Yes, it seems that the vice president, for the moment, has taken over. But what of Maduro's supporters, various other gangs and armed groups? What are they going to do? The president has not presented a plan for that, and this certainly doesn't seem to be something that's going to advance U.S. interests at this point.
KELLY: When and how did you learn that this attack was underway?
SMITH: Well, my wife actually told me first thing 'cause I'm on the West Coast. So got up and she said the news, and I went down, looked at my phone and had a whole bunch of calls from a whole bunch of people. So I had to talk to the House Armed Services Committee staff and others to figure out how to respond. So, yeah, they did not...
KELLY: So safe to say you did not get advance notification?
SMITH: No, they did not notify Congress of this, but that's - you know, that's not the most important point here. What I hope the American people are thinking about is how does this advance U.S. interests? It's not going to do much of anything to reduce the drug trade. You know, Maduro was not actually running that. He may have been involved in it, but the cartels are not going to go anywhere. Venezuela is a transshipment point, but most of the activity happens in Colombia, in Mexico and elsewhere. So it's not going to change that. And now we don't know what comes next in Venezuela...
KELLY: Although...
SMITH: ...What level of chaos is going to descend.
KELLY: Forgive my jumping in. The president...
SMITH: Sure, no problem.
KELLY: ...Today didn't seem all that focusing - and a change of pace for him, but didn't seem all that focused on drug trafficking. He was much more focused on regional stability, on the U.S. having good, reliable allies across the region. What's wrong with that?
SMITH: Well, what's wrong with that is, if you try to enforce that at the point of a gun, that does not typically lead to greater stability. So we've removed a leader. We don't know what's coming next. There is clearly a high amount of chaos within Venezuela to begin with. So how just taking one leader out is going to increase stability in the region, I don't see that argument. Look, this is a road we've walked down before, and this is what Trump claimed he understood. You know, wouldn't the world be a better place if Saddam Hussein was not in charge of Iraq, if Moammar Gadhafi was not in charge of Libya? And it's very tempting 'cause they're bad people doing bad things, and so is Nicolas Maduro - right? - but what comes next? A bad situation can be made worse. And now, again, the U.S. is on the hook for a lot of this. So that's the major challenge here.
KELLY: So what's your next move? What should Congress' next move be?
SMITH: We should exercise oversight. You know, I think we need to have hearings to answer these questions that you and I are asking. I mean, a couple reporters asked me today, you know, what comes next, and the honest answer is nobody knows - least of all Donald Trump. We ought to demand those answers and get a plan from the Department of Defense and from the White House going forward. Then I think we ought to cut off funds, you know, to continue military operations in Venezuela. I oppose boots on the ground in Venezuela. If the president of the United States is entertaining it, then Congress should act to cut that off and block any money going for that purpose.
KELLY: What are you hearing from folks in your district today? What questions are they raising?
SMITH: I haven't heard a lot, to be honest with you. I think the main, you know, questions are, what does this mean? Where does it go? And also, I think there's a general concern about, once again, President Trump behaving more like an authoritarian leader of a monarchy than as the leader of a constitutional republic - simply acting however he wants, regardless of what the rule of law or the Constitution says.
KELLY: Last thing, quickly - you've talked about that you believe Congress needs to exercise oversight. Have you reached out to Republican colleagues to check if they are interested in that, if they are interested in...
SMITH: Yes.
KELLY: ...Holding hearings, asking hard questions, figuring out, OK, we're here, now what's the plan?
SMITH: Yes, I have. And I'm told that we're going to do that. Next week, we're supposed to have a briefing from the Department of Defense for the House Armed Services Committee. I have not talked to the Senate. I assume they're doing the same. But we'll see. I mean, we've had promises about that before on things like Iran and the Middle East and elsewhere. So we'll see if the administration actually comes through and answers that. Thus far, Republican leadership in the House has said that, yes...
KELLY: Right.
SMITH: ...They want to exercise that oversight.
KELLY: That is Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He's the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. We'll look forward to checking back with you after those hearings are underway. Thanks so much for your time.
SMITH: Yep. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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