Watch: California senator dragged out of room during Kristi Noem speech

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A California senator was dragged out of a Los Angeles press conference hosted by Kristi Noem after he tried to question the US homeland security chief about the controversial ICE raids targeting immigrants.
'I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,' he declared while Ms Noem was speaking, prompting a number of security guards to grab him and shove him out of the room.
Ms Noem was addressing a string of recent immigration raids conducted by ICE agents at Home Depot car parks and workplaces that have sparked protests in California which have spread across the country.
Footage of the incident showed FBI agents forcing the senator to the floor and handcuffing him. The senator was briefly detained.
Mr Padilla, one of two Democratic senators representing California in the upper chamber of Congress, can be heard trying to ask Ms Noem about the targeting of immigrants.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, told Politico in a statement: 'Padilla stormed a press conference, without wearing his Senate pin or previously identifying himself to security, yelled, and lunged toward Secretary Noem.
'Padilla didn't want answers; he wanted attention. Padilla embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature, theatre-kid stunt – but 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.'
It comes as tensions have continued to flare in Los Angeles after Donald Trump defied California governor Gavin Newsom and deployed thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines to help quell the protests.
Gavin Newsom, who has publicly sparred with Mr Trump in the week since the protests erupted, described Mr Padilla as '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,' he wrote on social media.
Mr Padilla said that he was demanding answers about the 'increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions' and only wanted to ask Ms Noem a question. He said he was handcuffed but not arrested.
'If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they are doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day labourers throughout the Los Angeles community,' he said.
Ms Noem told Fox LA afterward that she had a 'great' conversation with Mr Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach 'something that I don't think was appropriate at all'.
'It wasn't becoming of a US senator or a public official, and perhaps he wanted the scene,' she added.
She said that politicians should 'get over themselves'.
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Democrat politicians described the incident as 'disturbing' and 'disgraceful', with a number 'marching' from the House floor into the Senate majority leader's office in protest, according to the New York Times.
Kamala Harris, the former presidential candidate, said the move was a 'shameful and stunning abuse of power'. 'United States Senator Alex Padilla was representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this administration's actions in Southern California. This is a shameful and stunning abuse of power,' she wrote on X.
'It's very disturbing, we need answers,' Senator Rapaheil Warnock told Politico.
Massachusetts Senator Elisabeth Warren told the website: 'As this event with Senator Padilla shows, the Republicans evidently embrace using fists.
'Violence is never the answer. … It's looking more and more like a fascist state out there every day.'
Pete Aguilar, a high-ranking Democrat in the House said: 'Forcibly removing a United States Senator from a press conference is disgraceful.
'This administration's chaos and corruption is out of control.'
Adriano Espaillat, the Hispanic Caucus chairman, called for the officers involved in the incident to be arrested.
Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, called the episode 'absolutely abhorrent and outrageous'.
'He is a sitting United States Senator. This administration's violent attacks on our city must end.'
Speaking on the Senate floor, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said: 'I just saw something that sickened my stomach. The manhandling of a United States Senator, we need immediate answers to what the hell went on.'
Mr Padilla's office told NBC News the politician had 'tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained'.
Some Republicans expressed misgivings over the incident. House speaker Mike Johnson said that 'at a mimimim, it rises to the level of a censure' adding: 'I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we're going to do.'
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Johnson had described Mr Padilla's actions as 'wildly inappropriate'.
Republican Senator for Alaska Lisa Murkowski said what had happened to Mr Padilla was 'horrible' and 'not the America I know'.
The Los Angeles protests, while largely peaceful, have at times descended into violence with protesters torching and throwing rocks at police.
Officers have fired rubber bullets, flash bangs and tear gas at crowds and have been accused of targeting more than two dozen journalists.
The White House has sent 4,700 troops to the city, despite objections from local officials and the police, who said they had the manpower and ability to handle the demonstrations.
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