Congress

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

Published

1 year 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

Senate Republicans want a say on Trump’s Iran deal

Published

2 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is touting a deal that would end the monthslong war with Iran — and potentially ease some of the political headwinds bearing down on Republicans.

GOP lawmakers still have lots of questions.

The absence of publicly released text for the “memorandum of understanding” Vice President JD Vance reportedly signed with Iranian officials Sunday left an information vacuum on Capitol Hill, where senators of both parties were left airing concerns about what the deal might entail.

Even most Republicans agreed: More information needs to come to Congress soon, and any agreement touching on the future of the Iranian nuclear program would have to eventually be subject to a congressional vote.

“If you want a deal to last, it can’t be an executive agreement,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “We’ve got to have a vote of Congress to be able to solidify [it] long term.”

The bipartisan scrutiny of the long-brewing agreement is a legacy of the last Iran nuclear deal, consummated more than a decade ago by then-President Barack Obama amid a bipartisan uproar over trading sanctions relief and cash concessions to the Iranian regime in return for curbs on its nuclear ambitions.

Trump withdrew from the deal in his first term, and now he is back with an agreement that — pending release of the text and final negotiations yet to come — could end up looking like Obama’s deal. That has raised the hackles of both defense hawks who despised the original agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Democrats who believe Trump never should have left it in the first place.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of those defense hawks, told reporters that he was “pulling for a deal,” while also making note of serious discrepancies in the terms that have emerged thus far.

“The MOU being described by us sounds really very good; the MOU being described by Iran sounds awful,” Graham said.

“If they can enrich [uranium] anywhere at all, then it’s the same as JCPOA. If they can’t enrich, then that makes it a good deal,” he continued, adding in a separate conversation that he was “skeptical that Iran will ever go there” to cease enrichment.

The Trump administration said it expects release of the memorandum of understanding no later than Friday.

The possibility that Congress would take any kind of vote on the agreement is also a legacy of the 2015 deal. Amid bipartisan concern about the Obama administration’s pursuit of nuclear talks, the GOP-controlled House and Senate that year passed legislation allowing for congressional review of any agreement dealing with the Iranian nuclear program.

That law, however, does not require Congress to approve a deal — it rather gives it the ability to kill a deal via a disapproval resolution that could be subject to presidential veto. That means each chamber would have to effectively muster a two-thirds majority to block Trump, something it did not come close to doing in 2015.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is “probably some expectation” that his chamber would ultimately vote on the agreement while declining to weigh in on the particulars.

“I just don’t know enough about it yet, and I don’t think even the people who follow this stuff closely up here know that much about it,” he said, adding that he expected Vance or other administration officials to brief members on the deal at some point.

The lack of specificity was par for the course on Capitol Hill Monday, with many senators expressing exasperation that text of the signed agreement has not yet been released.

“If it’s a secret deal, then how can I take it seriously?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters.

The agreement reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, but it’s not clear to what degree Iran will be required to abandon its nuclear program. Vance indicated in a series of interviews that the administration will attempt to ensure Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon but left details regarding civilian nuclear facilities and potential uranium enrichment unaddressed.

The White House circulated talking points to Hill Republicans Monday touting the deal including that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” and “energy prices … are coming down,” according to a copy of the document reviewed by Blue Light News. The administration also argued in the memo that the agreement “beats” the Obama-era agreement.

In the absence of further details, senators mainly agreed that they wanted a chance to formally review and vote on the deal — even as some Republicans predicted the administration would find a way to avoid that happening.

“I don’t expect that to happen,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said about a vote. “They’ll try to write it around the treaty requirements, so I don’t expect we’ll vote on it.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the administration should send the deal to Congress “if they want it to be something other than a political agreement, like the JCPOA was.”

Most congressional Republicans have been eager for Trump to find a way out of the nearly four-month war, which has driven up energy prices ahead of the November elections. Thune predicted Monday that a deal would “have a very positive impact on the economic situation in the country and that obviously will translate into the political situation in the country.”

Some of Trump’s most vocal allies on Capitol Hill praised the agreement Monday.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said has had conversations with senior White House officials and he was “very hopeful.” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who is likely the next Senate GOP campaign chair, added on X: “President Trump deserves our trust and support as he works to bring peace to the Middle East.”

Democrats were largely keeping their powder dry Monday on how they would handle a vote on the agreement. Some could find it hard to oppose a deal that ends hostilities on negotiated terms roughly similar to what was secured under a Democratic president in 2015.

But plenty of Democrats questioned what was gained by the conflict.

“We still don’t know the details,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The American people need to know exactly what’s in the deal. … We know this for certain: We are worse off than before Trump began his foolish war of choice.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

7 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate to confirm Jay Clayton as soon as Thursday

Published

9 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence — a lightning speed pace that will necessitate buy-in from all 100 senators.

Confirming Clayton could help shore up enough votes from Democrats to extend a government surveillance program that expired last Friday over opposition to Trump’s pick for acting director, Bill Pulte.

“He will come out of the committee Thursday, at least hopefully, and then if we get consent, we can move,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Monday about Clayton, who Trump only nominated for the job late last week.

Democrats “ought to be happy with Clayton,” said Thune, adding that he’s a “good” and “solid” pick.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, floated Sunday to CBS News that Clayton could be confirmed this week if every senator cooperates.

Senate Intelligence will hold a hearing Wednesday on Clayton’s nomination. If every member of the panel agrees, he could then get a committee vote Thursday. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member will punt Clayton’s confirmation to next week.

Confirming Clayton Thursday would, crucially, limit — and potentially circumvent — Pulte from becoming acting director of national intelligence, which Trump has slated to take place Friday, June 19.

The president’s decision to put Pulte in charge after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure at the helm of the Office of National Intelligence sparked bipartisan pushback, with Democrats saying they will withhold support for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while Pulte is in the acting role. Congress allowed the key government spy authority lapse last Friday without a deal.

Trump threw another curveball into a FISA extension over the weekend when he posted on social media that he was against reauthorizing Section 702 unless a GOP elections bill is attached. That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, does not have the votes to get through Congress.

Thune threw cold water Monday on tying the two issues together.

“Yeah, he’s, as you know, passionate about getting that done and wants to use every opportunity to take a shot at it,” Thune said of Trump and his desire to enact the elections bill.

But, Thune said, “we can’t get FISA done” if the policies are linked.