NC's Sen. Ted Budd wants answers on Venezuela plan, even as he supports attack

Danielle Battaglia, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Jan 6, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Budd wasn’t given any warning that a large-scale attack on Venezuela had been ordered by President Donald Trump.

Now, he wants answers about the incursion.

Explosions began around 1 a.m. Eastern time Saturday in the South American country. Delta Force entered Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, to capture President Nicolás Maduro at his compound. At 6:31 a.m., Trump confirmed the mission was successful.

Budd was visiting with family when his team alerted him to the attack.

“I was very supportive of it,” the North Carolina Republican told McClatchy in an exclusive interview.

Budd said Maduro has been using cocaine as his “cash cow” and his willingness to work with Hamas, Iran, China and Russia was concerning. He added that, though it happened before he was born, he worried about a new version of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the Soviet Union secretly placed nuclear missiles near the United States in Cuba.

“Do you want that to happen in our backyard again?” Budd asked. “And it certainly could have, if you let that mix develop, so I think it’s in the interest of national security that President Trump made a very bold but rational decision.”

Congressional briefings

Budd said he immediately began monitoring the news Saturday and watched as the rest of the world caught up with the information he now had. Then he called his sources within the Senate.

Budd serves on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, which has oversight authority over the military.

On Monday, leadership from the Senate and House armed services committees and the Gang of Eight, which includes leadership from both chambers, plus the chair and top Democrats from both chamber’s intelligence committees, met with the Trump administration to be briefed on the attack.

Budd was not part of those meetings but said briefings for the rest of Congress should follow midweek.

“Our job is to hold them accountable and, I think, they did the right thing in this case,” Budd said. “I’m very supportive of what President Trump did. Maduro was an illegitimate dictator and an indicted narcoterrorist. I think he needs to be brought to justice.”

Oversight questions

But that doesn’t mean Budd doesn’t have questions.

“I want to know what was the intelligence they had, what have they found out since the operation and what’s the plan going forward,” Budd said. “I think those are broad brush strokes and once we hear the first round of answers to those three we’ll go back and ask them to fill in details.”

He also wants more information about injuries that he’s learned about since. The New York Times reported that more than 80 people were killed in the attack, including members of the Cuban military and intelligence community. None were American.

Budd, a former House member, also said he understands why the Trump administration did not tell Congress about the attacks ahead of time.

“I’ve been in the congressional auditorium with 435 members of Congress, or 100 senators, and if you were on that side of the table, you would not want to brief that room,” Budd said. “I would trust me, and I would not trust everybody in that room. I think with the sensitivity and precision that was required, they made the right decision.”

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