Senate Foreign Relations Chair: People ‘Need an Answer’ on How Venezuela Transition Will Work

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. James Risch (R-ID) stated that how the transition in Venezuela will happen is “a really important question, and a question the American people really need an answer on as clearly as possible.” He added that the country should be run by the people of Venezuela, and “We want to encourage them, and that’s going on, by the way, right now with conversations.”

Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 2:55] “So, I guess Senator, the question is, what is this? It’s not — the administration’s not saying it’s regime change. It’s saying it’s a law enforcement action. But how will the transition happen, in your mind, on the ground in Venezuela?”

Risch answered, “That’s a really important question, and a question the American people really need an answer on as clearly as possible. This is not an operation to start a forever war in Venezuela. It’s — it wasn’t an operation to change regime. Although, of course, that happened because the man had committed the crimes he did and now he’s going to have to pay for it. But, if you look carefully at what happened when the United States went in there, they were very, very careful — we were very, very careful to see that we did not disrupt the infrastructure of the country. For instance, the police and other military operations were not touched by this. It is important that the Venezuelan people step up, get to a place where there can be a very rational and reasonable election and get to the place that the Venezuelan people want it to get to. There [have] been celebrations by Venezuelans all over, the ones in the country and all over the world. They’re glad to see Maduro do this. But, the Venezuelans are now going to have to step up. That’s what we want to see them do. We’re not imperialists. We don’t want to run this country. We don’t want to make this a situation where America is running the country. It needs to be done by the Venezuelan people. We want to encourage them, and that’s going on, by the way, right now with conversations.”

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