Rubio accused of 'lying straight up' to Congress over Trump's military plans

A Democratic lawmaker Monday slammed Secretary of State Marco Rubio over his initial claims about the Trump administration's plans in Venezuela and how President Donald Trump has not sought a vote from Congress to increase military pressure on the country.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) claimed that Rubio misled congressional leaders during a private briefing about the lethal alleged drug boat strikes last month in Washington, D.C.

He also expressed concern that lawmakers do not know the president's long term strategy for U.S. operations in the country.

"So the military is basically supporting the same brutal regime that Maduro put in place," Lieu said. "And so I don't really understand what the administration's strategy is. And that's because the president hasn't articulated a strategy. Look, it's really easy to use our amazing military to accomplish amazing missions. It's always the day after that. America has a lot of problems figuring out. And this day after that, the president and the administration has not articulated as to what the end goals even are."

Lieu argued that Rubio would have to face questions from lawmakers after Trump announced that the U.S. had captured Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores over the weekend.

"Secretary Marco Rubio needs to explain why he lied straight up to Congress," Lieu said. "I was in the classified briefing where Secretary Rubio looked us in the eye and said, basically, the use of military force would not occur without first coming to Congress to get authorization for the use of military force. He straight up lied to Congress. He needs to explain to himself to to us why he did what he did."