According to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), the person to blame for why Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro is still in power is President Donald Trump.
Shortly before a Venezuelan TPS roundtable meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), Ambassador Carlos Vecchio, and Reps. Donna Shalala (D) and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D) began, Rep. Wasserman Schultz took a veiled Ukraine swipe at Trump when she told The Floridian that “if he’s (Trump) going to pressure any world leader in taking action, it should be that Putin gets out of our hemisphere.”
“The reason that Maduro, in large part is still in power is because of the assistance that Trump is allowing Putin to continue to provide to Maduro.”-Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
“The president won't even acknowledge that Russian interfered with our elections,” said Wasserman Schultz “What he should be doing is pressuring Putin. If he’s going to pressure any world leader in taking action, it should be that Putin get out of our hemisphere, withdraw his troops, and his military and espionage support for Maduro, stop propping up Maduro.”
Maduro, who at the time as vice president of Venezuela, came into power during the Obama administration when then-Dictator Huge Chavez died in 2013.
President Trump has levied severe economic sanctions against Maduro’s regime since taking office in 2017, but to Wasserman Schultz and other House Democrats, the president has not done enough and should “use the pressure tactics available to him” to force Russia to withdraw their military troops and his “military and espionage support for Maduro.”
Wasserman Schultz continued, questioning Trump’s about how he could levy sanctions against the regime in support of President Juan Guaido, but still won’t pressure Putin.
“It is bizarre that Donald Trump levies sanctions against Venezuela, pays a lot of lip service to the need of Maduro to go in support of Juan Guaido as president, and yet at the same time won't use the pressure tactics that he has available to him to get Putin, and the Russians out of our hemisphere,” said Wasserman Schultz
Speaker Pelosi and Reps. Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, all stuck to the script of accusing Trump of not pressuring Putin.
“I don’t think we have exhausted all options, said Mucarsel-Powell “We have to put pressure on Russia. The President is very close to Vladamir Putin, we’ve seen that in the past two, three years."- Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Source)
Rep. Shalala said that President Trump has “made it clear that he loves Russian,” and instead of being friendly with President Putin, the president has to “be the big boy in the room that puts pressure on Russia.”
Shalala also pointed to the Chinese, Hezbollah, and Cuban threats that are in Venezuela, in particular the 20,000 Cuban troops that are dug in.
