Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., railed against President Donald Trump’s weekend strikes in Venezuela, but his criticism comes after a history of taking a softer approach to socialist dictators like former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Sanders, like several of his colleagues in the Senate Democratic caucus, argued that Trump’s decision to strike Venezuela’s capital Caracas without congressional approval broke the law and was another instance of the administration leapfrogging Congress’ war powers.

‘Donald Trump has, once again, shown his contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law,’ Sanders said in a statement. ‘The President of the United States does NOT have the right to unilaterally take this country to war, even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro.’

But the lawmaker’s decision to call Maduro a dictator is a shift. In previous years, Sanders has declined to place that label on him.

When Sanders was on the presidential campaign trail in 2019, he opted not to call Maduro a dictator, instead saying he would support an effort to ensure free and fair elections in the country.

‘I think it’s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic, but there are still Democratic operations taking place in that country,’ Sanders said during a town hall at the time. ‘The point is, what I’m calling for right now is an internationally supervised fair election.’

Maduro, who was first elected in 2013, is accused of human rights abuses and working with cartels and narco gangs in South America and Mexico to distribute illicit drugs into the U.S.

However, Sanders has often accused Trump of engaging in authoritarianism.

‘Under this administration, authoritarianism has taken root in our country,’ Sanders said on X in 2020. ‘As long as I am here, I will work with progressives, with moderates, and, yes, with conservatives to preserve this nation from a threat that so many of our heroes fought and died to defeat.’

The lawmaker has also been supportive of policies under former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. During his last presidential run, Sanders came under fire after a speech he made in the 1980s when he lauded the socialist policies installed by Castro and his regime.

Sanders was pressed on the speech during another town hall event on the campaign trail, where he noted that he had been consistently critical of authoritarian regimes across the globe.

Still, he contended that ‘there were a lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate. He formed the literacy brigade.’

‘You know what, I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing,’ Sanders said.

Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back from Sanders’ office for comment.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., introduced legislation aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from invading Greenland on Tuesday.

Gallego announced the legislative push on X, saying Congress must stop Trump ‘before he invades another country on a whim.’ The bill is one of several Democrat-backed efforts seeking to stop Trump from taking military action against other countries following the capture of now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

‘Families are getting crushed by rising grocery and housing costs, inflation is up, and Trump’s name is all over the Epstein files. Instead of doing anything to fix those problems, Trump is trying to distract people by threatening to start wars and invade countries – first in Venezuela, and now against our NATO ally Denmark,’ Gallego said in a statement.

‘What’s happening in Venezuela shows us that we can’t just ignore Trump’s reckless threats. His dangerous behavior puts American lives and our global credibility at risk. I’m introducing this amendment to make it clear that Congress will not bankroll illegal, unnecessary military action, and to force Republicans to choose whether they’re going to finally stand up or keep enabling Trump’s chaos,’ he added.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that the U.S. needs Greenland, a Danish territory, for ‘national security.’

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks on Monday, telling CNN that Greenland ‘should be part of the United States.’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action to take the Arctic island.

‘Greenland has a population of 30,000 people,’ Miller said. ‘The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland. What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?’

‘The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,’ he added.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Monday statement posted on Facebook that his country is ‘not an object of superpower rhetoric.’

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argued that a U.S. takeover of Greenland would effectively destroy NATO.

‘But I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,’ she said.

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s announcement that he is dropping his re-election bid amid a massive fraud scandal in the state is raising questions about the vetting process he received to be Kamala Harris’ running mate. 

Following Walz’s Monday announcement that he will not run for re-election as the state faces a fraud scandal that prosecutors say could total as much as $9 billion, many on social media from both sides of the aisle wondered aloud why he was elevated to the presidential ticket despite the fraud concerns which date back to at least 2019 when he was elected governor. 

‘What did Kamala Harris’ veep vetting team know about Tim Walz, and when did they know it?’ Conservative commentator and columnist Josh Hammer posted on X. 

‘This will dog VP Harris and she will need to answer questions about Tim Walz and her answers need to be CLEAR.’ former Jill Biden Press Secretary Michael LaRosa posted on X. ‘If I were advising the former VP, I would put this to bed NOW and release a statement ASAP. Rip the Band-Aid off and get this behind her. Her judgment will be questioned and the trust she placed into those who vetted her VP options will also be questioned. How could they possibly have missed this?’

Harris released a statement later in the day wishing Walz the best and touting his ‘life in public service’ but did not specifically address the fraud scandal or vetting process.

‘The vetting clearly failed,’ retired Minnesota State Patrol Lt. John Nagel told Fox News Digital. Nagel is running for Congress as a Republican against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.

‘By the time Governor Tim Walz was selected, Minnesota’s fraud scandals were already public, already under federal investigation, and already raising serious questions about oversight. That wasn’t hidden information — it was an open and growing issue, despite a local media environment that protects Democrats.’ 

Former Obama-era attorney general Eric Holder was a key figure in the vetting process for the Harris campaign, and he defended his due diligence on Walz, telling CNN that ‘nothing of substance’ was missed in regard to Walz’s record, which Nagel told Fox News Digital ‘raised more questions than it answered’ given the visibility of fraud concerns. 

‘Either possibility is troubling,’ Nagel told Fox News Digital. ‘If Kamala Harris didn’t know, that points to a deeply flawed vetting process and an insane level of hubris. If she did know and proceeded anyway, that suggests accountability simply wasn’t a priority.’

Michael Ceraso, a veteran Democratic strategist, told Fox News Digital the Harris campaign was likely aware of the fraud reports, but internally compared it to Trump’s controversies and concluded it’s ‘not as bad.’

‘Maybe the standard was different because they understood who they were running against, and maybe they were blasé about it because they were looking at their opponent and saying, well, this may not be as comparable to this, and so we can excuse this because this guy over here has done X, Y, and Z,’ Ceraso explained.

Going forward, Ceraso said the Democratic Party could arguably ‘put itself in a position as being the values party’ by placing more emphasis on vetting issues on their own merits rather than comparing records to Trump. 

‘The Democratic Party needs to be better because we can all be better, but I think comparing ourselves to a president that we obviously disagree with morally and saying, well, we’re not as bad as that, but still let a multi-billion dollar corruption thing happen with no accountability. That’s still pretty bad.’

Nagel told Fox News Digital that if Harris decides to run for political office in the future that this issue will likely come up.

‘Voters deserve to know how decisions at the highest levels are made — and whether political considerations outweighed transparency and accountability,’ Nagel said. ‘Unfortunately, if Kamala decides to run in 2028, legacy media outlets will likely not press her on her choice of Walz. I expect that to only be raised in Democrat circles during a presidential debate during the primaries.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ office for comment.

Walz has also faced criticism in recent days for comments he made on the campaign trail touting childcare programs in Minnesota, suggesting it should be a model for the nation, even though the Feeding Our Future scandal had been bubbling for years.

Pro-life activists and groups are taking issue with President Donald Trump’s remarks to Republican lawmakers to be ‘flexible’ on a law that bans the use of federal funds for most abortions as health care talks continue in Congress. 

‘Any healthcare plan that prioritizes a ‘deal’ over saving lives — in and out of the womb — deserves to die, not children,’ Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday following Trump’s address. ‘Republicans need to fix what the Democrats profoundly broke. Former President Barack Obama destroyed the American healthcare system with Obamacare, driving up costs and pushing life-ending policies with taxpayer funds. The GOP must work not for any deal, but for the right deal.’ 

Trump joined Republican House lawmakers Tuesday morning at the newly renamed Trump–Kennedy Center during their annual policy retreat to discuss the party’s agenda for the coming year — a high-stakes election cycle with the midterms just over a year away. Lawmakers are working to revive Obamacare enhanced subsidies after they expired in 2025, with some Republicans new restrictions on federal funds as they relate to abortion services under Obamacare plans. 

Trump said Tuesday lawmakers should be ‘flexible’ on the Hyde Amendment — a long-standing appropriations rider enacted in 1976 — that bars most federal funding for abortion, including through Medicaid, with limited exceptions.

‘You have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that,’ Trump said. ‘You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something … we’re all big fans of everything. But you have to have flexibility.’ 

The comment set off criticism among conservatives and pro-lifers on social media, with many remarking they can’t be ‘flexible’ when it comes to the life a child. 

‘No President Trump, we will NEVER compromise on the Hyde Amendment. NO taxpayer funding of abortions. Period,’ pro-life outlet Life News posted to X. 

‘For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party. To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment. If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November,’ SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. 

”You have to be a little flexible on Hyde’ when passing healthcare legislation, President Donald Trump just told the House Republican retreat. The Hyde Amendment prevents your taxpayer money from funding elective abortions not carried out due to rape or incest. Hard pass,’ Eastern Orthodox priest Ben Johnson posted to X. 

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told Politico after Trump’s address that: ‘I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life. Children are valuable, and so I’d have to get up to the context of what he meant by that.’ 

‘I almost fell out of my chair,’ another lawmaker told the outlet under the condition of anonymity. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House Tuesday for additional details on Trump’s comment and response to conservatives’ concerns, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Just nearly a year ago, Trump doubled down on his support for the Hyde Amendment when he signed an executive order four days after he was sworn back into office titled, ‘ENFORCING THE HYDE AMENDMENT.’

The executive order directed federal agencies to implement restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion, while reinforcing the long-standing Hyde Amendment and rescinding previous Biden-era orders that expanded abortion access. 

‘It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,’ the executive order stated. 

Democrats campaigned against Trump in 2024 on claims he would wipe out abortion access and impose a national abortion ban, which the campaign brushed off as unrealistic. While some conservatives have previously taken issue with Trump for not being more vocal in his support of pro-life policies, including in 2024 when the GOP platform only mentioned abortion once, instead focusing on the preservation of life and returning power to the states when developing laws surrounding abortion.