GEOFF BENNETT: And for perspective from the other side of the aisle, we turn now to Congressman Don Bacon, whom Leader Jeffries mentioned.

I spoke with a Nebraska Republican and retired Air Force brigadier general earlier today.

Congressman Don Bacon, welcome to the "News Hour."

REP.

DON BACON (R-NE): Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the matter of Venezuela, you were among the lawmakers briefed today by the administration on the Maduro operation.

Did you get the answers you needed and what outstanding questions do you still have about how the White House is approaching Venezuela?

REP.

DON BACON: Maybe two parts to my answer.

First part, they gave us details of the operation.

It was extraordinarily complicated, lots of moving parts, Special Forces, 150 different aircraft.

And it had to be synchronized to the minute, or to the second almost in many cases.

And it was brilliantly performed and executed by our military, so a lot of pride as a 30-year Air Force guy.

Now, the bigger question, what do we do next?

And I would say the administration is vague right now what to do next.

I worry that we're propping up the vice president, who did not win the election.

She was part of the illegitimate government with Maduro.

She's part of the Maduros' team.

Now there were elections in Venezuela, and a guy named by Gonzalez won handily, almost 70 to 30 percent, right, a huge win.

And Machado, what was the person supposed to be on the ballot, but her name was taken off by Maduro, and then Gonzalez ran in her spot, these should be the people that we should be looking to running the government down the road.

If this is a short-term time frame to have the vice president, Rodriguez, in, OK,I understand it, but the long-term plan should be trying to get Venezuela to the rightfully elected leaders.

I think there's been too much emphasis by the administration on oil.

I think most Americans don't see regime change should be defended by talking about getting their oil and controlling their oil.

Should be more about putting the rightfully -- rightful people in charge.

And then we can let the oil industry take care of itself.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the matter of the timeline, what some lawmakers took away from today's briefing was that there is now this road map for a years-long American presence in Venezuela, so that, in other words, after Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.

may be nation-building again.

Was that your impression?

REP.

DON BACON: Well, it was vague.

I will say that.

There was not a lot of detail but how long we're going to try to get the rightfully elected leaders.

They talked about different phases.

But the eventual -- the last phase is to put in the rightfully elected people, make it -- get a legitimate government put back in.

But there was a lot of detail on timing on that.

I do think most Americans do not want to run Venezuela.

GEOFF BENNETT: Big picture, the president has put Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, Greenland on notice.

You have described the notion of taking over Greenland by the U.S.

military as appalling and really dumb.

Zooming out, do you see a strategic through line here, or is this just the administration governing by pressure point and provocation?

REP.

DON BACON: Well, we don't want to be the bully.

And I think, to some degree, we're coming off that way.

I -- Venezuela is a unique situation, because they had Maduro.

Colombia, it's maybe a little bit of a problem, because a lot of the cocaine has come out of there, but the government is rightfully elected.

I met the president of Mexico in Mexico City this summer.

And she wants to work with our country to beat these cartels.

And there's ways we can do it, but she does not want American forces in Mexico.

She doesn't want American airpower going after them, but she could use our intelligence.

Now, this thing with Greenland is appalling.

They are in NATO.

They govern themselves, so they're under the protection of Denmark.

Denmark's a NATO ally.

We used to have five bases in Greenland.

We have one right now.

Greenland would welcome our friendly requests to have more basing rights there, to do more mining and economic investment in Greenland.

They would love that.

But threatening Greenland is counterproductive.

It's counterproductive to Denmark.

And, by the way, all the European countries see it and they hate it.

And these are our allies.

NATO is the best alliance in the history of mankind.

GEOFF BENNETT: Do you think President Trump's Greenland threats are part of a broader effort within the administration to dismantle NATO, something that he has talked openly about?

REP.

DON BACON: Well, they surely undervalue NATO.

Now, I -- one of the things that stands out at me is, there's a lot of talk about United States to control the Western Hemisphere, spheres of influence.

Europe and Russia, you guys can fight it out.

And Europe and China will have the Asia sphere of influence.

But that -- this is 1800s type of thinking.

And it went away in 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

And after World War II, we realized spheres of influence, we're better than that.

America is the leader of the free world.

We can't do it by ourselves.

We got to have good friends.

We can't counter Russia, China, Iran on our own.

But with our allies, we can.

GEOFF BENNETT: Given that this is such a foundational and existential issue, why aren't more Republicans speaking up like you are?

REP.

DON BACON: I'm not sure.

But I think a lot of them tell me, Don, it's better to talk privately with the White House.

Of course, I don't have President Trump on my speed dial.

I have a different view.

I mean, I had someone tell me yesterday, I respect him: "Don, if you were in a company, would you do this publicly?

Would you just go and have a private chat?"

And I'd go: "Yes, I would if I'm in a company."

When I'm in a military unit, I did the same thing.

But I'm a representative of the Second District of Nebraska.

I represent 700,000 people.

I want the constituents to know that some of this stuff is unacceptable.

But it's particularly Greenland, right?

Our voters deserve to know where we stand on this.

GEOFF BENNETT: Congressman Don Bacon, Republican from Nebraska, good to speak with you.

Thanks for making time for us.

REP.

DON BACON: Thank you.