{"id":15496,"date":"2025-06-13T00:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15496"},"modified":"2025-06-13T00:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:20:48","slug":"fbi-agents-tackled-sen-alex-padilla-at-an-la-news-conference-with-homeland-security-secretary-kristi-noem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15496","title":{"rendered":"FBI agents tackled Sen. Alex Padilla at an LA news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Democratic U.S. Sen.\u00a0Alex Padilla<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday was forcefully removed from\u00a0Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s news conference<\/a>\u00a0in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up about\u00a0immigration raids that have led to protests<\/a>\u00a0in California and around the country.<\/p>\n

Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u201cliberate\u201d the city from its \u201csocialist\u201d leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,\u201d he shouted in a halting voice.<\/p>\n

Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing, \u201cHands off!\u201d He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83d\udea8 #BREAKING<\/a> @SenAlexPadilla<\/a> tries to interrupt a press conference by @DHSgov<\/a> Sec @KristiNoem<\/a> and he\u2019s forcibly removed. <\/p>\n

California\u2019s senior U.S. Senator was handcuffed and detained. <\/p>\n

Video from @AlexPadilla4CA<\/a>\u2019s staff \ud83d\udea8 pic.twitter.com\/PXfszkBXxo<\/a><\/p>\n

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The shocking scene of a U.S. senator being aggressively removed from a Cabinet secretary\u2019s 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\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw \u201csickened my stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need immediate answers to what the hell went on,\u201d the New York senator said from the Senate floor. \u201cIt\u2019s despicable, it\u2019s disgusting, it\u2019s so un-American.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, DHS said that Padilla \u201cchose disrespectful political theater\u201d and that Secret Service \u201cthought he was an attacker.\u201d The statement claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself \u2014 he did, as he was being pushed from the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cPadilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers\u2019 repeated commands,\u201d the statement said, adding that \u201cofficers acted appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fracas in Los Angeles came just days after Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted<\/a> on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention center in New Jersey while Newark\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It also follows days of rising tension<\/a> between Trump and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the federal military intervention in California. In a speech<\/a> earlier this week, the governor warned that \u201cdemocracy is under assault before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emerging afterward, Padilla said he was removed while demanding answers about the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cincreasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question \u2026 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Noem told Fox<\/a> LA afterward that she had a \u201cgreat\u201d conversation with Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach \u201csomething that I don\u2019t think was appropriate at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House accused Padilla of grandstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cPadilla didn\u2019t want answers; he wanted attention,\u201d White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. \u201cIt\u2019s telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cTrump isn\u2019t targeting criminals in his mass deportation agenda, he is terrorizing communities, breaking apart families and putting American citizens in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla in 2021 became the state\u2019s first Latino U.S. senator when he was selected by Newsom<\/a> to fill Kamala Harris\u2019 Senate seat after she was elected vice president. At the time, Padilla was the state\u2019s chief elections officer.<\/p>\n

Harris wrote in a social media post Thursday that Padilla \u201cwas representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this administration\u2019s actions in Southern California.\u201d She called his forceful removal \u201ca shameful and stunning abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic senators quickly gathered in the chamber, denouncing the treatment of their colleague \u2014 a well-liked and respected senator \u2014 and urged Americans to understand what was happening.<\/p>\n

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is making this country \u201clook more and more like a fascist state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill any Republican senator speak up for our democracy?\u201d Warren pleaded.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., called on Noem to resign, saying that there was no justification for Padilla\u2019s treatment and that the Trump administration needed to be held accountable.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused Padilla of \u201ccharging\u201d Noem and indicated that the behavior \u201crises to the level of a censure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is it was wildly inappropriate,\u201d Johnson, a Trump ally, told reporters outside the House chamber as Democrats walking past shouted over him, \u201cThat\u2019s a lie!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA sitting member of Congress should not act like that,\u201d Johnson said, loudly speaking over reporters\u2019 questions. \u201cIt\u2019s beneath a member of Congress. It\u2019s beneath the U.S. senator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Republican leader John Thune said he has spoken to Padilla and is trying to reach Noem but hasn\u2019t yet connected with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d the South Dakota senator said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As part of their work in Congress, lawmakers are responsible for providing oversight of the administration, its agencies and actions.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s mass deportation operation.<\/p>\n

From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened to Padilla \u201cwas un-American\u201d and those involved must be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not going to end until there is accountability and until the Trump administration changes its behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n