‘Petty and unserious': Padilla blasts Vance for calling him ‘Jose Padilla'
Sen. Alex Padilla snapped back at Vice President JD Vance Saturday, calling the vice president 'petty and unserious' after Vance referred to the senator as 'Jose' during a press conference in Los Angeles the previous evening.
The squabble between Padilla and Vance is the latest clash between Trump administration officials and California Democrats as hostilities brew over President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration in the city, which has seen numerous ICE sweeps and significant counterprotests in recent weeks.
'He knows my name,' Padilla told MSNBC Saturday morning. 'Look, sadly it's just an indicator of how petty and unserious this administration is. He's the vice president of the United States. You'd think he'd take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously.'
Vance visited Los Angeles on Friday amid the heightened tensions, meeting with federal law enforcement and Marines his administration called in to quiet anti-ICE protests in the city, a move that prompted backlash from Democrats.
During a speech in which the vice president defended the administration's decision to call in National Guard troops — which a federal appeals court upheld this week — Vance also bashed his former Senate colleague, who was handcuffed and removed from a press briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week after attempting to question the secretary.
'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't the theater,' Vance said, deriding Padilla's handcuffing at Noem's briefing the prior week as 'pure political theater.'
Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, said that the vice president misspoke and 'must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.'
Padilla, the senator, was not charged after the incident at Noem's press conference. It isn't clear who Van Kirk could be referring to, but a Jose Padilla was convicted over 15 years ago of conspiracy to commit murder and fund terrorism.
California Democrats were having none of it.
'JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate,' Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X. 'Calling him 'Jose Padilla' is not an accident.'
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pulled no punches at a press conference later on Friday, denouncing Vance's earlier statement.
'Mr. Vice President, how dare you disrespect our senator,' Bass said. 'I guess he just looks like anybody to you,' the mayor continued, appearing to reference the underlying racialized tone of Vance's comment.
Padilla also addressed his former Senate colleague-turned vice president directly in a post to X, flipping Vance's jab about 'political theater' back at him.
'You know my name, @JDVance,' the California senator wrote. 'If you want to talk about political theater, let's start with the thousands of troops that your administration is using as props in Los Angeles.'
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