Congress

He wants to be sworn in as Venezuela’s president. He needs US help.

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2025

In the eyes of President Joe Biden and much of the world, Edmundo González Urrutia is the rightful next president of Venezuela. Yet he’s in Washington this week seeking America’s help making that a reality.

Venezuela holds its inauguration on Friday, and strongman ruler Nicolás Maduro is planning to be sworn in. González says he, too, intends to be there to take the oath of office — if he can reach Venezuela’s shores, avoid the $100,000 bounty on his head, and convince Maduro to step aside. The odds are against González, but he’s doing his best to convince Biden, aides to President-elect Donald Trump and other American leaders to support his cause.

In an interview with Blue Light News on Monday, the 75-year-old González was upbeat about his prospects. He stressed that he wants a peaceful transfer of power in Venezuela, and is not requesting outside military intervention, but he also pointed to some not-quite-analogous examples of transitions that at times felt impossible.

“Look at what happened with Assad,” he said, meaning the recently ousted Syrian dictator. “Look at what happened with the Libyan government. They fell down one day and disappeared.”

González shared his thoughts after meetings with Biden and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), whom Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. González — whom Maduro forced into exile last September — stopped in Washington as part of an international tour to rally global support ahead of the inauguration.

González said his message to Biden was one of gratitude and a request for more support for the Venezuelan people. He wouldn’t go into specifics about what that meant, but the possibilities include more sanctions and more legal targeting of Maduro and his aides on criminal matters.

“They know what they have to do. We don’t have to give lessons to the U.S. administration,” González said. “They have done a lot. It’s not sufficient.”

And what did Biden pledge to him? “We will do whatever we can.”

Venezuelan opposition leader González steps out of the West Wing to speak to with reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration in November recognized the opposition’s victory, and the White House readout of Biden’s meeting with González referred to him as Venezuela’s president-elect. According to the readout, Biden “underscored the U.S. commitment to continue to hold Maduro and his representatives accountable for their anti-democratic and repressive actions.”

Still, even with U.S. backing, González and the rest of Venezuela’s opposition face many barriers, not the least of which is that Venezuela’s armed forces continue to support Maduro. The strongman has outlasted previous efforts to push him from power, including a push six years ago under the first Trump administration.

González has not been able to get a meeting with Trump, but his aides are in touch with people in Trump’s orbit in the hopes of influencing the incoming U.S. president’s thinking. González indicated that his conversations with the incoming national security adviser gave him hope. Waltz, as a lawmaker from Florida, is well-aware of issues involving Latin America and its diaspora.

“He’s very kind and very clever and very sympathetic to our cause,” González said.

The United States has over several years imposed many economic sanctions on Caracas, but there’s more the U.S. can do on both sanctions and other fronts, especially when it comes to targeting Venezuela’s energy sector.

Venezuela’s chaos has many implications for U.S. national security. Venezuela is an oil giant with ties to U.S. adversaries such as China and Russia. Its problems exacerbated a migration crisis on America’s southern border. Its government is widely seen as a criminal enterprise that has wrecked the country’s economy. Venezuela also often detains Americans and other foreigners to use as bargaining chips in international negotiations.

Waltz and others who plan to work for Trump in his second term, including secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, have often taken tough stances against Maduro and backed the opposition forces in Venezuela.

During his first term, Trump rallied many other countries to refuse to recognize Maduro’s highly questionable win in a previous election. Through a Venezuelan constitutional mechanism, the U.S. declared that another opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, was the country’s interim president. That effort eventually fizzled out.

The situation in Venezuela is arguably more complicated now, and Maduro more entrenched. Trump also is keen on maintaining low oil prices and lowering migration to the United States, so his policy toward Caracas could be affected by what further pressuring the country could do on those fronts. He might be hesitant, for instance, to impose more sanctions on Venezuela if it could mean more people flee the country and head to the United States.

At the same time, Trump has pledged to crack down on migrants already in the United States. That could include stripping various groups, including Venezuelans, of legal protections that permit them to stay.

When asked what he would advise Trump when it came to dealing with the Venezuelan migrants in the United States, González said: “Help us to get rid of Maduro, and when that happens, the Venezuelans who left the country will be back again to Venezuela.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a Venezuelan national flag during a rally to protest official results that declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the July presidential election. A wanted poster of González covers a column in downtown Caracas, Venezuela.

González, a retired diplomat, was named the opposition’s presidential candidate after the movement’s leader, María Corina Machado was barred from running.

The Venezuelan opposition published extensive voter data showing González handily defeated Maduro in the July 28 presidential election. But Maduro refused to concede and his government has cracked down on opposition activists in the months since.

Maduro and his loyalists control all key state institutions in Venezuela. González decided he had to leave Venezuela in September when the government issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of several crimes. He went to Spain.

Days ago, Maduro offered a $100,000 reward for information on González’s location. González nonetheless said Monday that he will reach his country’s inauguration Friday “by any means possible — by plane, by ship, by road, by cycle.”

Machado herself is believed to be somewhere in Venezuela, though in hiding. She has called for protests to be held on Thursday in Venezuela, and she herself may make an appearance.

González is continuing to visit other countries in the hemisphere and said he will not be at the Thursday rally. According to the White House, Biden said he would be following the Thursday protests closely, and that “Venezuelans should be allowed to express their political opinions peacefully without fear of reprisal from the military and police.”

González during an interview at the Hay-Adams hotel in Washington.

González had a long career as a diplomat — including a stint in Washington, where his daughter was born, more than 40 years ago. He enjoyed walking in Rock Creek Park, he said, calling the posting one of the most interesting he held.

Asked why he agreed to take on the mantle of opposition presidential candidate at this stage in life, he struck a patriotic note.

“I did it for my country,” he said. “I mean, I could have stayed at home, watching Netflix and TV and things like that, and going out to the beach on weekends, but I think this is the moment to act.”

After years of economic deprivation and political repression, do the Venezuelan people still have the energy to oust the strongman?

“The people are fed up, are tired” of the regime, he said. A transition is inevitable, and, as far as the opposition’s role goes, it will be peaceful, González argued.

“If it’s not this week, it will be next week, it will be next month,” he said. “But it will happen, sooner rather than later.”

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

2 minutes ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

1 hour ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

Congress

Former MLB star Mark Teixeira to hit campaign trail with GOP leaders

Published

5 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House GOP leaders are planning to bring former MLB star Mark Teixeira, one of their top candidate recruits this cycle, out on the trail in battleground districts over the summer recess sprint.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise will host a fundraiser with Teixeira in New York City on Aug. 20 with Speaker Mike Johnson as a special guest, according to three people with direct knowledge of the event, granted anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public.

It’s part of a New York swing where Teixeira and Johnson will also hit nearby stops in GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s 17th Congressional District and for Mike LiPetri, who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Teixeira is running to replace GOP Rep. Chip Roy in Texas’ 21st Congressional District. He won a World Series title with the Yankees in 2009 and also played for the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels before retiring from professional baseball in 2016 after 14 seasons.

Because Teixeira has little chance of losing in the deep-red seat, Republican leaders are hoping to harness his star power to boost their candidates in the most competitive races. They’re planning for Teixeira to help campaign in a wider swath of battleground districts in August and through November, including likely stops in Pennsylvania and Georgia.