Sen. Padilla Removed From Noem Conf.   06/13 06:31

   

   LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday was 
forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news 
conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up 
about immigration raids that have led to protests in California and around the 
country.

   Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem's security detail grabbing the 
California senator by his jacket and shoving him from the room as he tried to 
speak up during the DHS secretary's event. Padilla interrupted the news 
conference after Noem delivered a particularly pointed line, saying federal 
authorities were not going away but planned to stay and increase operations to 
"liberate" the city from its "socialist" leadership.

   "I'm Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," he shouted in a 
halting voice.

   Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing, "Hands 
off!" He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground and 
handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.

   The shocking scene of a U.S. senator being aggressively removed from a 
Cabinet secretary's news conference prompted immediate outrage from his 
Democratic colleagues. Images and video of the scuffle ricocheted through the 
halls of Congress, where stunned Democrats demanded an immediate investigation 
and characterized the episode as another in a line of mounting threats to 
democracy by President Donald Trump's administration.

   Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw "sickened my 
stomach."

   "We need immediate answers to what the hell went on," the New York senator 
said from the Senate floor. "It's despicable, it's disgusting, it's so 
un-American."

   In a statement, DHS said that Padilla "chose disrespectful political 
theater" and that Secret Service "thought he was an attacker." The statement 
claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself -- he did, as he was 
being pushed from the room.

   "Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers' 
repeated commands," the statement said, adding that "officers acted 
appropriately."

   The fracas in Los Angeles came just days after Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica 
McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered 
with immigration officers outside a detention center in New Jersey while 
Newark's mayor was being arrested after he tried to join a congressional 
oversight visit at the facility. Democrats have framed the charges as 
intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.

   It also follows days of rising tension between Trump and Democratic 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the federal military intervention in 
California. In a speech earlier this week, the governor warned that "democracy 
is under assault before our eyes."

   Emerging afterward, Padilla said he was removed while demanding answers 
about the Trump administration's "increasingly extreme immigration enforcement 
actions." He said he and his colleagues had received little to no response to 
their questions in recent weeks, so he attended the briefing for more 
information.

   "If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question 
... I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day 
laborers throughout the Los Angeles community, and throughout California and 
throughout the country," he said.

   Noem told Fox LA afterward that she had a "great" conversation with Padilla 
after the scuffle, but called his approach "something that I don't think was 
appropriate at all."

   The White House accused Padilla of grandstanding.

   "Padilla didn't want answers; he wanted attention," White House spokeswoman 
Abigail Jackson said. "It's telling that Democrats are more riled up about 
Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement 
in LA."

   Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, has been a harsh Trump critic 
and his mass deportations agenda. In a social media post, he said of recent 
federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, "Trump isn't targeting criminals in 
his mass deportation agenda, he is terrorizing communities, breaking apart 
families and putting American citizens in harm's way."

   Padilla in 2021 became the state's first Latino U.S. senator when he was 
selected by Newsom to fill Kamala Harris' Senate seat after she was elected 
vice president. At the time, Padilla was the state's chief elections officer.

   Harris wrote in a social media post Thursday that Padilla "was representing 
the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this administration's 
actions in Southern California." She called his forceful removal "a shameful 
and stunning abuse of power."

   Democratic senators quickly gathered in the chamber, denouncing the 
treatment of their colleague -- a well-liked and respected senator -- and urged 
Americans to understand what was happening.

   Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is making this country "look more 
and more like a fascist state."

   "Will any Republican senator speak up for our democracy?" Warren pleaded.

   Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., called on Noem to resign, saying that there was no 
justification for Padilla's treatment and that the Trump administration needed 
to be held accountable.

   House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused Padilla of "charging" Noem and 
indicated that the behavior "rises to the level of a censure."

   "My view is it was wildly inappropriate," Johnson, a Trump ally, told 
reporters outside the House chamber as Democrats walking past shouted over him, 
"That's a lie!"

   "A sitting member of Congress should not act like that," Johnson said, 
loudly speaking over reporters' questions. "It's beneath a member of Congress. 
It's beneath the U.S. senator."

   Senate Republican leader John Thune said he has spoken to Padilla and is 
trying to reach Noem but hasn't yet connected with her.

   "We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do in 
any incident like this involving a senator and try to gather all the relevant 
information," the South Dakota senator said.

   The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, said that he was 
unaware of what happened but that Padilla should have been at work in 
Washington.

   The stark incident comes as Congress faces increasing episodes of 
encroachment on its authority. As a coequal branch of the U.S. government, the 
Trump administration is exerting its executive powers in untested ways.

   As part of their work in Congress, lawmakers are responsible for providing 
oversight of the administration, its agencies and actions.

   Several senators and representatives have been exercising their oversight 
roles by surveying the treatment of immigrants and others being detained as 
part of the Trump administration's mass deportation operation.

   From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries 
said what happened to Padilla "was un-American" and those involved must be held 
accountable.

   "This is not going to end until there is accountability and until the Trump 
administration changes its behavior," he said.