Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, was forcibly removed Thursday from a West Los Angeles news conference after he interrupted remarks by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Video from the scene shows federal agents forcing Padilla onto a hallway floor and placing him in handcuffs.
Padilla, 52, attempted to interrupt Noem as she was speaking to reporters at the West LA federal building about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city. Secret Service officers in the room grabbed Padilla, then pushed him past a group of journalists through an open doorway. Padilla continued speaking loudly as he was removed from the room.
When they reached the adjacent hallway, three federal officers forced Padilla to the ground on his stomach and cuffed his hands behind his back.
Noem called Padilla’s actions at the news conference “inappropriate” but said she intended to speak with him.
“I don’t even know the senator. He did not request a meeting with me or to speak with me,” Noem said. “So when I leave here I’ll have a conversation with him and find out really what his concerns were. I think everybody in America would agree that that was inappropriate.”
Padilla emerged a short time later from the federal building and told reporters he was not arrested.
“Since the beginning of the year, but especially over the course of recent weeks, I and several of my colleagues have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions, and we’ve gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries,” Padilla said. “And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information. And at one point I had a question. … I was there peacefully. At one point I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained. …
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”
A Homeland Security response posted on X said, “Senator Padilla 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. Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately. Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting.”
Dan Bongino, FBI deputy director, said Padilla “was not wearing a security pin and physically resisted law enforcement when confronted. Our FBI personnel acted completely appropriately while assisting Secret Service and we are grateful for their professionalism and service,” Bongino posted on X.
Area Democrats and other senators on Capitol Hill were quick to decry Padilla’s ejection from the news briefing.
“What just happened to (Padilla) is absolutely abhorrent and outrageous,” Mayor Karen Bass posted on X. He is a sitting United States senator. This administration’s violent attacks on our city must end.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom posted that Padilla “is one of the most decent people I know. This is outrageous, dictatorial and shameful. (President Donald) Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now. If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you.”
Assemblyman Mark González, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement saying, “This isn’t just an insult to Senator Padilla, it’s an attack on the dignity of our democratic institutions and the people he represents.”
LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn said, “This administration is out of control! They are shoving to the ground and handcuffing a United States Senator. The entire Trump administration is unhinged. Senator Padilla is just as much of the federal government as they are. The Trump administration is abusing their power. They are using force on immigrants in our neighborhoods, their family members and now on a sitting senator. Senator Padilla wasn’t interfering with one of their operations. This was at a staged press conference in front of the cameras — all for show.”
Speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Alex Schiff, D-California, said, “When a U.S. senator goes to demand questions about the lawfulness or lawlessness of these actions, to see him tackled to the ground, brought to the ground. What is becoming of our democracy? Are there no limits to what this administration will do?”
Republicans took a different view of the incident.
“Thank you to all media outlets for playing the @SenAlexPadilla freak out,” White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung posted on X. “Shows the public what a complete lunatic Padilla is by rushing towards Secretary Noem and disturbing the informative press conference.”
Roxanne Hoge, chair of the LA County Republican Party, said in a statement, “Senator Alex Padilla, like all California Democrats being faced with the reality that their creation of a permanent underclass of illegal aliens is wildly unpopular, is desperate. He deliberately chose to disrupt a press conference by a cabinet secretary of an administration that is under constant attack from the far left. His shameful stunt resulted in a little video clip that he’ll use to fundraise, but serious people understand that communicating with Secretary Noem wasn’t his primary goal.”
Immediately prior to Padilla’s interjection to ask her a question, Noem said, “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has criticized Trump’s threats of political retaliation, told reporters, “Senator Padilla is a big, tall guy, and to see how he was handled out of that room is wrong and sick,” she told reporters at the Capitol.”
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters, “(Padilla) should have been here in Washington voting. He has a responsibility to his constituents to show up at work, not to go try to make a spectacle of himself.”
