Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote on January 14, 2026, to defeat a bipartisan war powers resolution in the Senate that sought to limit President Donald Trump’s military actions in Venezuela without congressional approval. The measure, sponsored by Democrats like Sen. Tim Kaine, had initially advanced with support from five Republicans, but intense White House pressure led Sens. Josh Hawley and Todd Young to flip their positions after receiving assurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that no U.S. ground troops were in Venezuela and any future deployments would seek authorization. The final 50-50 tie was broken by Vance, effectively shielding the administration from oversight amid the fallout from the January 3 capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The U.S. military operation, codenamed Absolute Resolve, unfolded in the early hours of January 3, 2026, involving over 150 aircraft, special forces including Delta Force, and advanced drones to suppress Venezuelan air defenses and raid Maduro’s compound in Caracas. The surgical strike resulted in the capture of Maduro and Flores, who were extradited to New York and charged with narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, and weapons offenses, to which they pleaded not guilty. The action, justified by the Trump administration as a law enforcement mission against a indicted criminal leader, led to casualties including dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban personnel, civilian deaths, and the release of political prisoners as a concession. Critics decried it as an unlawful regime change violating international law, while Trump touted it for securing oil resources and combating drug cartels.

On the same day as the Senate vote, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her phone, laptops, and watch as part of an investigation into leaked classified information about the Venezuela operation. The probe targets Pentagon contractor Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a former Navy official charged with unlawful retention of national defense information, who allegedly accessed top-secret reports on Venezuela, took screenshots and notes, and is accused by officials of leaking to Natanson—whose recent co-authored Post story cited secret government documents on the strike. Though Natanson is not charged and the Post asserts neither she nor the paper is the focus, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel framed the search as cracking down on dangerous leaks from a “treasonous” source in the defense chain, raising alarms over press freedom and source protection amid Trump’s vows to hunt leakers.

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