California Senator Handcuffed, Manhandled at Kristi Noem Press Conference
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.'
More from Rolling Stone
Hamas Attacks Aid Group, Challenging Israel's Gaza Plan
Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Really Screws the Poor
Trump's Big Bill Would Let Him Expand His L.A. Immigration Crackdown 'Everywhere'
Best of Rolling Stone
The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal
The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
5 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
If Not Washington, Who Will Fund Harvard?
Jason Riley describes how Harvard has become a punching bag for political grandstanding ('Does the President Want to Fix Harvard or Destroy It?,'Upward Mobility, May 28). Yet the Trump administration swings at its peril. Harvard isn't a delicate orchid that will fold under political heat. It's a $53 billion juggernaut with labs, patents and partnerships that span the globe. If Washington starts revoking grants, threatening tax status or chilling academic freedom to score points with the base, Harvard isn't going to sit tight until President Trump is over. It's going to pivot—aggressively. Someone else, be it Berlin, Seoul or Abu Dhabi, will fund it. The idea that the greatest minds in medicine, energy and artificial intelligence will suddenly transfer their breakthroughs to a U.S. government-licensed trade school is laughable. In a century where data, biotech and artificial intelligence are the new oil, dismantling our own research powerhouse is like banning railroads in 1900 because the engineers read Karl Marx.
Politico
6 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump embraces Israel after ‘successful' Iran attack
President Donald Trump signaled there is no daylight between the United States and Israel after it launched an attack on Iran late Thursday, killing multiple high-ranking military leaders and targeting Iran's nuclear and long-range missile capabilities. Trump repeatedly praised the attack as 'successful' in a media blitz on Friday, and urged Iran to agree to a deal with the U.S. to shutter its nuclear program. The president's strong support for Israel's attacks took a noticeably different tone from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement immediately following the attacks on Thursday, which stressed the U.S. was not involved in Israel's 'unilateral' actions. Trump said the U.S. was aware of Israel's plans to strike Iran in advance, but did not clarify if the U.S. sanctioned the attacks or was merely given advance notice. When asked by The Wall Street Journal about whether the U.S. was given a heads-up, Trump said, 'Heads-up? It wasn't a heads-up. It was, we know what's going on.' And he told Reuters, 'We knew everything.' Trump declined to answer when asked by ABC News if the U.S. was directly involved in the attacks, but praised Israel's use of 'American equipment' in the military operation to NBC News. Shortly after the attacks on Thursday, Rubio released a statement that appeared to create some distance between the U.S. and Israel. 'Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,' Rubio said in the Thursday statement. Asked by CNN on Friday about Rubio's statement, Trump reiterated his strong support for Israel. 'We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it,' he said. U.S. allies around the world have expressed shock at the attacks and stressed the need for deescalation. A Downing Street spokesperson said United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to discuss 'long-held grave concerns over Iran's nuclear programme' and called on both nations to cease further military action. 'The leaders reaffirmed Israel's right to self-defence, and agreed that a diplomatic resolution, rather than military action, was the way forward,' the spokesperson said. Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday morning Israel launched the attack after gathering intelligence suggesting that Iran was 'moving forward' with plans to 'destroy Israel.' 'They were going to initiate another attack like Oct. 7. Once we gathered the information about that, we decided not to wait. We believed their intentions,' Danon said in an interview with 'Fox and Friends.' In each interview, Trump called on Iran to return to the negotiating table and agree to a nuclear deal. The president told Axios he believes the attacks may help bring Iran closer to a deal — but it wasn't clear in the immediate aftermath of the strikes how negotiations were affected. In his NBC News interview, the president said the Iranians were 'calling me to speak,' but noted that 'the same people we worked with the last time ... many of them are dead now.' But just hours before the attacks, Trump said Israel attacking Iran could 'blow' any chance of a deal. 'As long as I think there is an agreement, I don't want [Israel] going in, because I think that would blow it,' he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. 'Might help it actually, but it also could blow it.' Iranian leaders have reacted with fury to Israel's wave of strikes — and have signaled the country also blames the United States for the actions. A post from Iran's United Nation's mission 'vehemently' condemned the strikes, and said 'the Israeli regime and its backer — namely the United States — shall be held fully accountable for these blatant violations of international law and their grave consequences.' The Pentagon is moving two warships closer to Israel in the aftermath of the attack to provide additional security, POLITICO previously reported. Trump told Reuters he is unsure if U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff's scheduled meeting with Iran to continue nuclear talks in Oman on Sunday will still take place in the wake of the attacks.
New York Post
6 minutes ago
- New York Post
Appeals court won't reconsider Trump's $5M loss to E. Jean Carroll
NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – Donald Trump failed to persuade a federal appeals court to reconsider the $5 million verdict won by E. Jean Carroll after a jury found that the U.S. president sexually abused and defamed the former magazine columnist. A divided 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Friday left intact its Dec. 30 decision upholding the jury award. Carroll, now 81, accused Trump of attacking her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, and defaming her in an October 2022 Truth Social post by denying her claim as a hoax. 3 Donald Trump failed to persuade a federal appeals court to reconsider the $5 million verdict won by E. Jean Carroll. AP 3 Carroll accused Trump of attacking her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan, and defaming her in an October 2022 Truth Social post by denying her claim. REUTERS Jurors decided in May 2023 that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll, and defamed her by lying. They did not find that Trump raped Carroll, as she had claimed. In seeking reconsideration, Trump maintained that the trial judge erred in letting jurors review the 2005 'Access Hollywood' video of him bragging about his sexual prowess, and a 'pile-on' of inflammatory evidence that he mistreated two other women. 3 Jurors decided in May 2023 that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll. Getty Images One, businesswoman Jessica Leeds, said Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s. The other, former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, said Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005. Trump has denied their claims. Trump, who turns 79 on Saturday, is separately appealing an $83.3 million jury verdict in January 2024 for defaming Carroll and damaging her reputation in June 2019, when he first denied her claim about the Bergdorf encounter. The president is arguing in that appeal that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last July providing him substantial criminal immunity shields him from liability in Carroll's civil case. In his 2019 and 2022 denials of Carroll's accusations, Trump said she was 'not my type' and had made up the rape claim to promote her memoir.
