Johnson insists US 'not at war' after closed-door Venezuela briefing divides lawmakers

By Fox News · Fox News

A select group of lawmakers received their first closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday following the Trump administration’s weekend military strikes in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro — a meeting that quickly divided along political lines. The roughly two-hour meeting deep in the bowels of Congress featured top administration officials providing a classified briefing to congressional leaders and the chairs and ranking members of the armed services, intelligence and foreign relations committees. None of the Trump officials, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio , Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan "Raizin" Caine and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, spoke after the meeting. FETTERMAN DEFENDS TRUMP'S VENEZUELA MILITARY OPERATION AGAINST CRITICISM FROM FELLOW DEMOCRATS But a handful of lawmakers did, and questions still lingered about what exactly would come next for U.S. involvement in the country, if other similar operations would be carried out across the globe, and who exactly was running Venezuela. House Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., said that there was no expectation that the U.S. would be on the ground, nor would there be any "direct involvement in any other way beyond just coercing the interim government to to get that going." "We are not at war," Johnson said. "We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country." "This is not a regime change ," he continued. "This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now, and we are hopeful that they will be able to correct their action." House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fl., echoed Johnson, and reiterated that the operation was a "specific law enforcement function that took place that took a significant obstacle out of the way for the Venezuelan people to go chart a new future." NAVY SECRETARY PRAISES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S MADURO CAP…