Outraged Democrats handcuffed in ability to do much about Padilla treatment

San Francisco Chronicle​

21 hours ago

Democrats loudly condemned the forcible removal and handcuffing of California Sen. Alex Padilla when he tried to question U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, but lack the power to do much beyond decrying the situation.
The altercation occurred when Padilla tried to ask a question at a news conference Noem was holding about the ongoing military deployment in Los Angeles, where people have been protesting the Trump administration's aggressive immigration raids. Several men grabbed him and pulled him out of the room. He was pushed to the ground and handcuffed in an outside hallway, videos show.
'What we're really talking about here is a Trump administration that just wants to shut down the ordinary functions of government,' said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachussetts, in a hastily shot video she filmed on her phone as she raced to the Senate floor to denounce the administration's treatment of Padilla. 'That's how it works in a democracy: We use our words to hold people accountable.'
As a member of the minority party in Congress, words are about the only ammunition at Warren disposal as she responds to the situation. Were Democrats in the majority, they would have more power to haul officials like Noem in to be questioned before a committee and to issue subpoenas for more information.
Without that power, Democrats are imploring their Republican colleagues to help them.
'Are you going to condemn this?' Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted at House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso. 'Have a spine.'
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the political arm of congressional Democrats, released a statement pressuring three Republicans representing California in Congress — Ken Calvert, David Valadao, and Young Kim — to demand answers from the Trump administration.
Democrats in Congress held a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to denounce the way Padilla was treated. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, tweeted a video showing a group of them walking through the Capitol.
'We are marching to Senator Thune's office,' he wrote. 'There must be accountability for the detainment of a Senator. This is not normal.'
But so far, Republicans have not responded as their Democratic colleagues are requesting.
Johnson said Padilla, not Republicans, should be censured.
'At a minimum, it rises to the level of a censure,' he told reporters at the Capitol in Washington. '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… We're not going to have senators charging cabinet secretaries.'
Noem also criticized Padilla's actions.
'If he had requested a meeting I would have loved to have sat down and had a conversation with him,' Noem said on Fox News. 'Coming into a press conference like this is political theater.'
Padilla entered the room, began walking toward the podium as Noem was speaking and interrupted her to ask a question, but did not immediately identify himself, according to a reporter at the press conference who asked not to be named because they did not have authorization from their network to speak.
A video shows the senator attempting to push back against agents removing him from the room, repeating 'hands off, hands off' as individuals grab at his clothing and force him backward toward the room's doors.
'I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,' Padilla can be heard saying.
Once in the hallway, Padilla was pushed facedown on the ground by three officers who then handcuff him behind his back, according to a video shared on social media by Padilla's staff.
Padilla was later released; he was not arrested.
Edgar Rodriguez, a spokesperson for Padilla, confirmed that after Padilla was released, he met with Noem and raised concerns about the deployment of military service members in Los Angeles. 'It was a civil, brief meeting, but the Secretary did not provide any meaningful answers,' according to a statement from Padilla's office.
Local and state officials have also forcefully spoken out against Padilla's handcuffing.
'When a sitting Senator is manhandled, pushed, shoved, and handcuffed for simply asking a question at a press conference, something is gravely wrong,' San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu wrote in a statement. 'These are the actions of an authoritarian dictatorship crushing lawful dissent through force.'
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, also criticized Padilla's treatment.
'This is where we're at as a country: Federal thugs detaining & roughing up a United States Senator for trying to speak to a cabinet secretary & question administration policy,' he wrote on the social media website BlueSky. 'Anyone who continues to doubt whether this is fascism is living in an alternate reality.'
Wiener and his Democratic colleagues in the state Legislature hold a supermajority, unlike their fellow Democrats in Congress. But they lack the same level of oversight over members of the Trump administration like Noem.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee who oversees federal prosecutions in Los Angeles, said Padilla did not behave appropriately. Essayli, who was at the news briefing with Noem, said Padilla 'stood up and started advancing' and that Padilla received 'standard operating procedure for the Secret Service.'
Padilla argued that he was simply trying to ask a question after he and his Democratic colleagues had for months tried unsuccessfully to get answers from Noem's department on its immigration raids.
Essayli has some experience with the frustration of being in the minority party. Essayli, who served in the state Legislature before Trump appointed him to be a federal prosecutor earlier this year, would at times yell obscenities and pound his fist on his desk on the Assembly floor in exasperation during floor debates when he was censured for speaking out of turn. Sometimes, he posted videos of those exchanges on his YouTube channel.
'He wasn't there looking to have a genuine dialog. He was there to cause a scene and go viral,' Essayli said of Padilla. 'I guess he got what he wanted.'