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Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was dragged out of a Department of Homeland Security press conference, forced to the ground, and handcuffed by members of the FBI after attempting to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem a question on Thursday.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla, I have questions for the secretary,” the federal lawmaker who represents 40 million Californians said as several men grabbed his clothing and torso and began pushing him out of the room. Padilla told the men to “get off him.” In a video released by Padilla’s office, two FBI agents and one unidentified man maneuver the senator — who at that point appeared to be complying with their orders — to the ground and handcuff him. All the while, Noem continued speaking about her intention to “liberate” Los Angeles from “socialist” city and state rule.
According to Padilla’s office, the senator was in the federal building to receive a briefing with Air Force General Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, “and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference. He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground, and handcuffed.” His office said he was trying to exercise “his duty to perform congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California.”
Padilla said in an impromptu press conference outside the building that he was “there peacefully.” and was in attendance hoping to get answers from the administration about their immigration policies. Padilla delivered the same remarks in both English and Spanish. “I began to ask a question,” he recalled when he was removed from the room. “I was forced to the ground and I was handcuffed,” he said, clarifying,“I was not arrested. I was not detained.” Padilla, his voice halting with emotion, then posed to reporters: “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they’re doing do farmers… and day laborers.”
The Trump administration’s manhandling of Padilla comes amid a week of tension in Southern California that Donald Trump and his top officials have sought to escalate. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out increasingly aggressive raids and arrests in the Los Angeles area, prompting local protests — which Trump used as an excuse to send military troops to the city.
California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the senator is “one of the most decent people I know. This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) added that watching “the manhandling” of a United States Senator “sickened my stomach.”
“We need immediate answers to what the hell went on,” Schumer wrote.
In a floor speech, Padilla’s fellow California Senator, Democrat Adam Schiff, called on Republicans to condemn the treatment of their colleague.
“The founders separated the powers between the executive and legislative and the judiciary because they wanted to set ambition against ambition, ambition of one institution against another, to protect all of our freedom,” Schiff said. “ But that requires that we go beyond our partisan affiliations and when something is wrong, dead wrong, when something is a threat to our democracy, that we call it out regardless of party. And this is wrong.”
In a statement issued on social media, DHS claimed that Padilla was manhandled by federal agents because he “chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” adding that the Secret Service “thought he was an attacker.”
Video clearly shows Padilla was nowhere close enough to Noem to “lunge” at her, and that he loudly identified himself as a senator. As Sen. Chris Murphy told members of the GOP in an address to the Senate; “even if you believe that he was disrespectful — and given the times that is certainly in the eye of the beholder — that never justifies what we saw on that video, throwing anyone, nevermind an elected representative of the people, to the ground to be handcuffed.”
“They’re going to spin this, but I’m begging my Republican colleagues, don’t let them do it,” Murphy said. “Protect our ability as servants of the people to speak up for the people that we represent.”
