Maryland senator on Venezuelan resources and detained Americans in Venezuela

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the strike against Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro's arrest.

President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed in New York Saturday evening after being indicted in the state, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The arrest comes after the U.S. launched a strike against Venezuela, reportedly approved by President Donald Trump.

When asked what leverage does Democrats have to force the Trump Administration to treat Congress as co-equal branch of government after they said that no information was being shared with the top people who have oversight, Sen. Van Hollen said:

"It's hard when the Republicans in Congress are totally AWOL, right? When they want to give Donald Trump essentially a blank check, because they continue to have majorities, of course, in the House and the Senate. Obviously in 2026, if Democrats regain control of either House [or Senate], we will have the gavel, but in the meantime, we need to go directly to the American people and just make it very clear that in this case, it's my view that the Trump administration has been lying to the American people. This has never been about stopping drugs from coming to the United States. We all support stopping drugs. This, from the beginning, has been about getting rid of Maduro, grabbing Venezuela's oil for American oil companies and Trump's billionaire buddies. That's what this is about. That's why Donald Trump spent so much time yesterday talking about oil."

According to Brennan, there are also critical minerals and natural resources in the country that the drug cartels were getting in the business of and that the Chinese were trying to get.

This prompted her to ask the senator how does the U.S. do both corner the market on things that are of vital national security interest and still actually maintain the principles he is arguing should be upheld, to which Van Hollen said:

"The United States is working, and under the previous administration, also worked to secure critical mineral supply chains. Unfortunately, in many of these areas, the Trump administration actually has surrendered to China. I mean, if you look at, for example, clean energy and all those issues and batteries, we've essentially surrendered that market to China. What you don't do Margaret is you don't put American lives at risk to go in and grab oil resources to benefit the billionaires that support Donald Trump."

During the interview, Brennan and Van Hollen talked about at least four Americans who have been reportedly detained by the Maduro regime.

This led Brennan to ask Van Hollen what he knows about the detained Americans, and what he can find out about how they're doing, and the senator said:

"I've not gotten an update from the administration on those detained Americans. Months ago, I did work to secure the release of an American, a Marylander, who we now have back in Baltimore, Maryland. I think the administration is looking at those detentions currently ongoing in Venezuela and determining how many of them are wrongful detentions, how many that they don't think are wrongful detentions. But certainly, my view is we should work to bring back every American who is wrongfully detained overseas. I think this is going to complicate that effort, what the Trump administration just did."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Van Hollen, click here.