In an interview with GBH News, Rep. Stephen Lynch said Congress must check President Donald Trump’s approach to international affairs after the United States’ recent military strike in Venezuela and apprehension of President Nicolás Maduro.
“You can’t make this stuff up — that he’s talking about invading Greenland, which is pure buffoonery,” said Lynch, who represents parts of Boston and neighboring cities, including Brockton and Quincy. “You know, we’re becoming a gangster nation here. Because we’re stronger than a country, we can go in there and take over?
“They’re saying that Greenland would be great for national security,” Lynch added. “Yeah, so would a good neighbor and a good relationship with European nations. Many of them have condemned our actions in Venezuela, they’ve condemned our statements with respect to designs on Greenland. The president is weakening our national security rather than improving on it.”
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of invading or annexing Greenland, which is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Earlier this week, he told reporters: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you.” Trump has also discussed invading Colombia and suggested that, in the wake of the attack on Venezuela, the Cuban regime will collapse.
The best way to rein in Trump’s military adventurism, Lynch argued, is for Congress to pass war powers resolutions limiting the president’s ability to take further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. According to the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power to formally declare war.
A war powers resolution limiting future action in Venezuela advanced in the U.S. Senate Thursday, and Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and two other congressmen have introduced a similar resolution in the House.
Lynch said he believes there’s enough support in the House to pass a resolution there, and possibly to override a presidential veto, which would require roughly 70 Republicans to side with Democrats. In the Senate, more than a dozen Republicans would need to vote with Democrats and a small group of their GOP colleagues to complete an override. Lynch believes that, as the situation in Venezuela continues to develop, a joint war powers resolution could garner sufficient support to meet these thresholds.
Lynch also had harsh words for the Trump administration in the wake of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, an incident he described as “absolutely horrific, horrific, horrific.” The 37-year-old was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week, prompting protests across the country, including in Massachusetts.
Video evidence makes it clear that Good was not a domestic terrorist attempting to harm ICE agents with her vehicle, Lynch said, despite the administration’s claims to the contrary.
“I think we’re all shocked not only at the violence, and the tragic, tragic death of Ms. Good, but also the propaganda that came out of the White House and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi] Noem,” Lynch said. “Because they pushed that out there to their favorite news stations, and clearly they were lying. They were lying.
“The car was driving away from the officer when he put one bullet through the corner of the windshield and then two more through the side window as it was going past him,” the congressman added. “Clearly it was not how the president or how Secretary Noem depicted it in their statements.”
Asked if Congress can take meaningful steps to prevent what happened in Minneapolis from being repeated elsewhere in the country, Lynch suggested that the Supreme Court’s willingness to prevent the National Guard from being deployed in Chicago could ultimately restrict Trump’s ability to deploy military resources domestically, at least to some extent.
“I’m part of the Litigation Task Force here on the House side, and we’ve got I think over 400 cases right now, probably more … against the administration for the misuse of military resources in a domestic situation,” he said. “So we can continue to push those.
“We’ve got a full court press on that,” Lynch added. “Unfortunately the administration keeps appealing these cases, and so it’s a case of whack-a-mole. You win in one court and they move it to another and you’ve got to follow through on the appeal. So it’s not as quick or decisive or final as we would like it to be.”
