(Devin) Nunes accused Schiff of having met with Simpson on earlier occasions. "The fact that they're coordinating doesn't really surprise me because Glenn Simpson is a Democratic operative working for the Democratic Party," Nunes said.

"So the fact that he's meeting with Democrats on Capitol Hill is not a surprise. That's his business. That's what he does. There just is a little bit of surprise that people haven't taken it serious that this guy needs to be investigated. And clearly they weren't, if they were meeting and having conversations in 2018. My guess is that they were having conversations before that."

On Wednesday, Schiff announced that the newly empowered Democratic majority on the intelligence committee would be re-opening the panel's Trump-Russia investigation which Nunes and the former GOP majority had ended in March of 2018.

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[Khanna] further stressed that it is not up to "neoconservative Defense Department officials" or "defense contractor lobbyists" to authorize interventions abroad either.

Congressman Khanna was reacting to earlier remarks made by US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who didn't rule out approving a US military intervention to oust President Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela. He told AFP that he would do "everything that is necessary" in order to "save human lives," while acknowledging that the deployment of American soldiers is "a very controversial subject."

The Trump administration's belligerent rhetoric was met with pushback from a number of politicians. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the US must "not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups."

Representative Ilhan Omar noted that a US-backed coup is "not a solution" to Venezuela's problems and Washington "cannot hand pick leaders for other countries."

"Let the Venezuelan people determine their future," Congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard wrote, saying the US should "stay out."

Nations such as Russia, China, and Iran continue to recognize Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. The US' open backing of the opposition is aimed at "exacerbating the division within the Venezuelan society," which can lead to "chaos" and the "destruction of Venezuelan statehood," the Russian Foreign Ministry has stated.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted that "enduring peace" in Venezuela can only be achieved through dialogue and "political means."

President Maduro told RT Spanish that the US made a "mistake" by getting behind the opposition. He said that he doesn't believe a foreign intervention will actually take place, but the country has to be prepared, nonetheless. The government needs to ensure that military involvement would cost Washington "entirely too much."