Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) appeared to storm out of a congressional hearing on Wednesday following a tense exchange with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom she accused of concealing lucrative private contracts over Venezuelan oil revenue that remains under Trump administration control.
Following the Trump administration’s military operation in January to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – which was succeeded by a U.S. takeover of the country – Rubio revealed that the United States would “retain control” of Venezuela’s oil revenue. Since then, Democrats have called for an audit of what they described as the Trump administration’s “secretive financial arrangement using offshore accounts to disperse Venezuelan oil revenue.”
A frustrated Kamlager-Dove demanded answers from Rubio, who she described as the new “overlord” of Venezuela, and who she claimed had yet to provide any “real transparency about where the money is going and who is benefiting.”
“It is about credibility, and your credibility meter is on empty right now,” Kamlager-Dove said after several minutes of a heated back and forth with Rubio. “This oil, who determines the barrels of oil that get sold, how many of them, at what price does it get sold, where is it going? The onus is on you to prove that there is no corruption happening.”
Rubio interjected, complaining that he could not provide an answer “if you don’t let me talk,” to which Kamlager-Dove asked the secretary of state to commit to coming back to the committee “with whoever the person is that is monitoring the sales of oil,” and to “show the receipts.”
Rubio did not make such a commitment, and instead asked if he could “reclaim my time.”
“You don’t have this time yet!” Kamlager-Dove fired back. “We are five months into this and no audits — zero visibility into the contracts that are awarded, zero transparency about where the money is going!”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the chair of the committee, spitefully said “fortunately, representative’s time has expired” before cutting her off.
“Giving contracts with no transparency is exactly the reason why you shut down USAID, so practice what you preach!” Kamlager-Dove shouted, despite her having been cut off by the committee chair.
“Oh, she gets to scream now, too?” Rubio said. “God, what kind of thing is this, what is this? You get asked questions for five minutes and you don’t get time to answer? It’s not a hearing, it’s like a dunk tank.”
Kamlager-Dove apparently then started to leave the hearing, to which Rubio asked “why is she leaving, I’m going to answer her questions!”
Kamlager-Dove could be heard shouting something back at Rubio, to which Rubio sarcastically quipped “okay, I got it – well, thank you for coming.”
Rep. @sydneykamlager appears to storm out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee after a heated exchange with Secretary of State @marcorubio “She gets to scream now, too?” pic.twitter.com/eFv3MLVw9r — Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) June 3, 2026
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