Alex Padilla says FBI escorted him to Noem press conference before he was wrestled to the ground for interrupting
California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla says FBI agents escorted him to a Kristi Noem press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, where he was swarmed by security, contradicting the Trump administration's version of events.
The Homeland Security Secretary was addressing the policing of this week's anti-ICE protests in the California city, which saw President Donald Trump controversially send in the National Guard and Marines to keep order, when Padilla spoke up to ask a question and was roughly wrestled to the ground by Secret Service and FBI agents and eventually led away in handcuffs.
Noem, the agents, and the White House have since insisted that the senator 'lurched' at the secretary. Still, Padilla insisted this was not the case, offering his own version of events on last night's episode of MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber.
Interviewer Jacob Soboroff put it to Padilla that the agents responsible for the Noem event had said they had not recognized him and believed him to be an attacker and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had since dismissed the whole affair as staged political theater.
'Well, first of all, that's ridiculous. It's a lie, but par for the course for this administration, right?' the senator responded.
He explained that he had been in the federal building in Westwood for a meeting about the administration's plan to use Guantanamo Bay as a facility to hold undocumented migrants when he learned that Noem would be speaking just down the hall and had decided to ask her for answers in person given that the DHS had been 'non-responsive' to his requests for information.
Padilla continued: 'We're, the whole time, being escorted in this federal building by somebody from the National Guard, somebody from the FBI. I've gone through screening. This is a federal building.
'They escort me over to that room. And I'm sitting in the back of the room, behind the cameras, behind the reporters, listening, listening. And at one point, it was just too much to take.'
The senator said he became incensed by Noem's repeated attacks on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass for, in her opinion, allowing the protests to get out of hand: 'It was too much. And so I spoke up. I introduced myself and said I had a question.'
He said that claims by the secretary's security detail that they did not know who he was were nonsense because he was wearing a polo shirt that was branded with the words 'United States Senate.'
Padilla continued: 'There was no threat. There was no lunging. I raised my voice to ask a question. And it took, what, maybe half a second before multiple agents were on me.'
Soboroff agreed that the Democrat had clearly identified himself as he spoke, referencing video of the incident, and put it to him that he had been accused of 'barging' into the briefing.
'I didn't barge into the room,' he replied. 'As I mentioned, I was in a different conference room a couple doors down the hall. I let it be known, I'd like to go listen to the press conference. The folks that were escorting me in the building walked me over.
'I didn't even open the door. The door was opened for me. And I spent a few minutes in the back of the room just listening in until the rhetoric, the political rhetoric got to be too much to take. So I spoke up.'
Padilla's fellow Democrats have expressed outrage over the episode, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said 'sickened my stomach' and Newsom called 'outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful.'
But Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene have insisted that Padilla was the aggressor and should be prosecuted.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Strangest last meals of the world's most evil men: From the killer who asked to eat dirt to the Nazi who wanted a cheese board and the murderer who wanted a single olive
Capital punishment is becoming increasingly rare in the 21st century. More than half of all nations have outright abolished the practice, as of 2024. A further 17% of countries around the world have all but banned it. This leaves just over a quarter of nations that continue to execute prisoners for their crimes. In almost all cases, only those who commit the most heinous of crimes are punished this way. But despite the barbarity of their crimes, many of the nations that still practice executions allow prisoners one final dignity before the end of their lives. Final meals are perhaps best thought of as symbolic of the life a person has led, or wanted to lead. In many cases, they come in the form of specially prepared meals that take prisoners back to a simpler time, before they bore the weight of their crimes on their shoulders. Sometimes, however, these meals can completely unexpected. From the murderer who requested a single olive in the hope he could grow a symbol of peace, to the Nazi who got a cheeseboard before facing justice, and the bizarre request of a killer who wanted a pound of dirt to get reincarnated, these are the strangest final meals ever requested by death row prisoners. James Edward Smith In April 1990, James Edward Smith was executed by lethal injection for murder. He was 37 years old. Smith fatally shot insurance executive Larry D. Rohus during a robbery inside a second-floor cashier's office near the Astrodome on March 7, 1983. During the jury selection for his trial in Texas, Smith attempted to escape and ran from the courthouse. He only made it a few blocks before he was captured and returned to custody. After being found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, Smith appealed the sentence. However, it was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1987. For his final meal, Smith initially requested a lump of rhaeakunda dirt. It was thought that the specific dirt was used in voodoo rituals, which Smith thought may assist him in reincarnation. However the Texas Department of Criminal Justice denied Smith's request - so he settled on a cup of yoghurt. His initial execution was scheduled for 1988; but this was pushed back when his mother's lawyers appealed for stay of execution. He was eventually executed in 1990. Adolf Eichmann Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, was kidnapped by agents of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad from his Argentina bolthole in a daring mission in 1960. He was smuggled back to Israel to face justice for his horrific crimes. During the eight-month trial, his actions as the man who actively facilitated and managed to mass deportation of millions of Jewish people to ghettos and concentration camps across Europe were laid bare to the world. He showed no remorse for his actions, telling the court in his pardon plea: 'There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders. 'I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.' For his crimes against humanity, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Despite his terrible actions during the Second World War, he was offered a chance to eat a special meal. Eichmann, however, declined this and instead asked to have a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine, alongside the normal prison food of cheese, bread, olives and tea. But he reportedly only finished half of the bottle as he finished his meal on May 31 1962. He was hanged to death in a prison in Ramla, Israel, just a few minutes after midnight. Eichmann's final words, according to one witness, were: 'I hope that all of you will follow me.' Mathias Kneißl Mathias Kneißl was a German outlaw, poacher and popular social rebel in the Dachau district, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. He gained infamy in the region throughout his life for repeatedly humiliating the police, who were seen as corrupt. Kneißl began his career of crime at an early age, joining his brothers in their cattle poaching escapades before being jailed for the first time at the age of 16. Though he was eventually released, he was unable to hold legitimate jobs down and turned back to his life of crime. He committed several armed robberies, and was chased through the region for his crimes. In one arrest attempt which ended in a gun fight with police, he injured two policemen so badly that they later died from their injuries. Kneißl stayed on the run for another few months. Eventually, however, he was captured by a massive group of 60 policemen. During the ensuing gunfight, Kneißl was seriously injured after taking a bullet to his abdomen. He was charged with two murders, attempted murder, as well as armed robbery and extortion. The Court sentenced him to receive the death penalty for murder and 15 years imprisonment on the other charges. In 1902, he was sentenced to decapitation by guillotine. For his last meal he requested six glasses of beer. Ricky Ray Rector Ricky Ray Rector was an American murderer who was executed for the 1981 murder of police officer Bob Martin in Conway, Arkansas. After getting into a heated disagreement with his friend, a furious Rector pulled a gun on his friend and shot him in the throat and forehead, killing him almost instantly. He went on the run for several days, before his sister convinced him to turn himself in. He agreed, but said he would only do so to Bob Martin, a police officer he had known since he was a child. After Martin arrived at Rector's mother's home on March 24, Rector shot him in the jaw and neck before walking out of the home. After shooting Bob Martin, Rector attempted to take his own life by shooting himself in the head. The bullet wound, and subsequent surgery to remove the bullet from Rector's head resulted in a frontal lobotomy (the loss of a three-inch section of his brain), leaving him mentally impaired. In 1996 Rector was executed by lethal injection, however Rector seemed incapable of understanding his pending death sentence. For his last meal, he requested a steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid and a pecan pie. But he left the pecan pie he requested on the side of the tray, telling the guards who came to take him to the execution chamber that he was saving it 'for later'. Ronnie Lee Gardner Gardner ate a last meal of steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up before beginning a 48-hour fast while watching The Lord of the Rings film trilogy Ronnie Lee Gardner was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of attorney Michael Burdell during an attempted escape from a Salt Lake City courthouse. At the time of the murder, Gardner was in court, accused of killing Melvyn John Otterstrom during a 1984 robbery at a bar. Somehow, he had smuggled a revolver into the Metropolitan Hall of Justice at Salt Lake City. Officials believe he was surreptitiously handed the firearm as he was being escorted into the court from the underground car park. As he pulled the gun out, he was shot in the shoulder by armed guard Luther Hensley, before shooting unarmed bailiff George Kirk in the abdomen. This allowed him to run to the court's archive room, where he confronted two attorneys, Robert Macri and Michael Burdell. Gardner pulled the revolver up and pointed it at Macri, who was in court doing pro bono work for his church. Upon shooting him, he ran to the front of the building where he was confronted by dozens of officers. After a quarter of a century on death row, Gardner, 49, became the first man to die by firing squad in Utah in 14 years in 2010. He is the most recent person to be executed by this method. Gardner ate a last meal of steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up before beginning a 48-hour fast while watching The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. His lawyers said that the fast was done for 'spiritual reasons', though did not explain why he watched the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's classic trilogy. Thomas J Grasso Thomas J Grasso admitted murdering two elderly people six months apart. He strangled 85-year-old Hilda Johnson in 1990 with a set of Christmas tree lights in her own home, stealing $8 from her purse and $4 in loose change, along with a TV set that he fenced for $125. Six months later, after moving to New York, he killed Leslie Holtz in 1991, an 81-year-old man from whom he stole his social security cheque. His bizarre last meal request was for two dozen steamed mussels, two dozen steamed clams, a Burger King double cheeseburger, six barbecued spare ribs, two large milkshakes, a tin of SpaghettiOs with meatballs, half a pumpkin pie and strawberries and cream. Unfortunately, the length or complexity of his list seemed to confuse kitchen staff who made one crucial mistake. Less than an hour before he died, he issued his final statement to the world: 'I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.' Victor Feguer Victor Feguer was a convicted murderer who became the last federal inmate to be executed by the United States in 1963. He was also the last person to be put to death in the state of Iowa. Originally from Michigan, he found himself in Iowa and was renting a small room in a dilapidated boarding house. His murder of Dr. Edward Bartels was the incident that landed him an execution by hanging. After falsely calling the doctor to his home by claiming a woman needed medical attention, he kidnapped him and smuggled him out of the state to Chicago. There, he is believed to have shot and killed the doctor in a cornfield, before leaving his body to rot. Investigators believed he kidnapped the tragic doctor to coerce him into giving him drugs used to treat patients. Feguer claimed that it was actually a Chicago drug addict, who he met on his way to Chicago, who murdered Bartels. But the judge overseeing the case did not believe him, and sentenced him to hang. For his final meal, he requested a single olive with the pit still inside. He told guards he hoped an olive tree would be grown from his grave 'as a sign of peace.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump's military parade taps an ancient tradition of power: from Mesopotamia to Maga
To Donald Trump, the inspiration is the pomp and pageantry of Bastille Day, France's annual celebration of the 1789 revolution. For his critics, it is redolent of the authoritarian militarism proudly projected by autocracies like Russia, China and North Korea. Despite its military prowess and undoubted superpowers status, overt military displays in civilian settings are the exception rather than the rule in US history. But in bringing to the streets of Washington DC on Saturday the military parade Trump has long hankered after he – consciously or otherwise – is tapping into a tradition that harks back to antiquity. The first known instances of victorious exhibitions of military might date back to ancient Mesopotamia, whose territory now comprises modern-day Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran. Mesopotamian emperors decorated their palaces and citadels with friezes portraying heroic conquests. Portraits would display a massive potentate striding ahead of his troops and crushing on his opponents' skulls. Military parades were also integral rituals of the Roman Empire, where generals and emperors who had won battles would march from the field of Mars into the temple of Jupiter, witnessed by thousands of adoring peasants. The looted possessions of conquered nations were said to be conveyed in chariots, while abducted barbarians were dragged along in chains. Slaves were encouraged to murmur 'Memento mori' (remember that you will die) to their captors, it is said, as part of a drama supposed to link the Roman public to its leaders. In one depicted image, created in the 19th century by the artist Bartolomeo Pinelli, the Roman military leader, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, is seen leading his triumphant army to Rome after defeating the Gauls, having personally triumphed over their leader in one-to-one combat. These Roman rituals were later adopted by European countries as they evolved into nation states and sought to project images of power and military potency. The military parade is widely believed to have been refined in Prussia, a European state that later became part of a unified Germany under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck. Featuring choreography including salutes, precise spacing between soldiers, and goose steps, the Prussian model became a prototype for other armies in Europe and beyond. Other European countries had different versions, that have in some cases become annual rituals. In Britain, starting during the reign of Charles II, Trooping the Colour is held every year on Horse Guards Parade near Buckingham Palace to celebrate the sovereign's birthday. This year's parade, celebrating the birthday of the current King Charles, coincidentally takes place on Saturday, which is also Trump's 79th birthday. Staring under the Soviet Union and continuing in present day Russia, Moscow plays host on 9 May every year to victory day, commemorating victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war. During the cold war, the parades, featuring Red Army soldiers marching through Red Square viewed by the Soviet leadership, became a symbol of Moscow's implacable hostility to the west in the ideological struggle between capitalism and communism. Red Square was the venue for what is believed to be the largest military parade ever staged, on 24 June 1945, when 40,000 troops and 1,800 armored vehicles passed through to mark victory over Germany. This year's occasion, marking the 80th anniversary of the war's end, featured even greater pomp than usual, with troops from China, Egypt, Belarus and several central Asian countries marching alongside their Russian counterparts. China's leader, Xi Jinping, was among several international statesman joining Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, in the reviewing stands. Comparable displays of military muscle are seen in China. The national day parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square – marking the anniversary of the Communist regime's ascent to power – is now a once-a-decade affair but used to occur more regularly. The most recent event, which took place on 1 October, 2019 to celebrate the regime's 70th birthday, was billed as the biggest military parade and mass pageant ever held in China. Beijing's ally, North Korea, holds annual parades to celebrate the date of the state's founding, as well as separate events to mark the birthdays of its dynastic leaders. Strikingly, if less well-documented, Pyong Yang's parades are mirrored by equivalent events in democratic South Korea, which stages armed forces day annually on 1 October to mark the anniversary of its troops crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War. By contrast, choreographed exhibitions are much rarer in the US. The most recent parade was instigated by Trump himself during his first presidency when – apparently triggered by having watched a Bastille Day parade alongside the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris – his administration organized a Salute to America event to coincide with the 4 July celebrations in 2019. That display on Washington's national mall included aircraft flyovers, presentations of military vehicles and an address by Trump at the Lincoln memorial. It was the first military parade in the US Capitol since a June 1991 extravaganza, watched by an estimated 200,000 spectators, to celebrate expelling Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the first Gulf war. Tanks and Patriot missile batteries were rolled out while Stealth fighter jets flew above a parade led by general Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of coalition forces in the conflict. The 1953 presidential inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower, a former general of US and allied forces in the second world war, included a parade by 22,000 troops and even a nuclear-capable canon. In similar vein, John F Kennedy, a decorated military veteran, had military hardware on show at his 1961 inaugural. Others notable military parades took place to mark the end of the first and second world war, as well as the American Civil War. A ticker tape welcome was afforded victorious troops, including 13,000 members of the 82nd airborne division, in a spectacular victory parade in New York in 1946 that was seen by an estimated four million people. Similar parades were staged in New York and Washington in 1919, with General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force that had fought in France, leading 25,000 parading soldiers in full battle dress. In 1865, after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, his successor Andrew Johnson ordered a two-day grand review of the armies. The result saw about 145,000 soldiers from the armies of the Potomac, Georgia and Tennessee marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, to be reviewed by victorious Union generals, Ulysses S Grant, William Sherman and George Meade. In general, however, US presidents have avoided explicitly militaristic displays – until now. A stark contrast to Trump's bullish attitude was offered by his Republican predecessor, Gerald Ford, who declined to take part in the military parades organized for the 1976 bicentennial celebrations, citing the enduring negative sentiment over the Vietnam war. Ford's posture may seem extreme but it may be more in keeping with the feelings of America's founding fathers towards militarism, according to Jonathan Alter, a historian who has chronicled several US presidencies. 'The United States was founded by men who were admirers of the Roman Republic, which had an important law that military commanders could not bring their troops into Rome,' he explained. The law, however was violated by Julius Caesar, who crossed the Rubicon river in 49BC with his forces at the start of a civil war that was to result in him acquiring dictatorial powers. 'It was a hugely significant thing, and a violation of 400 years of very important Roman tradition which the founders of our country were quite aware of,' Alter said. 'That's the way military dictatorship lies, if you have the head of state bringing his army into the capital. 'We have a more modest tradition when it comes to showing military power. It goes back to George Washington. There's always been a sense that tanks in the capital are a bad sign, even if it's just for a parade.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Tanks to roll through Washington as Trump hosts US military parade
Thousands of troops accompanied by dozens of tanks and aircraft will stream through the National Mall in Washington DC for a military parade billed as celebrating the US army's 250th birthday on Saturday – which also happens to be the day Donald Trump turns 79. The president has long desired to hold a military parade in the capital, and is finally getting his wish months after returning to the White House for a second term, and days after ordering federalized California national guard and US marines to the streets of Los Angeles in response to protests against deportations. Washington DC will briefly become the second American city to see soldiers in its streets, albeit for markedly different reasons. The all-day event held in the shadow of the Washington Monument will begin with a fitness competition and official ceremony to mark the army's birthday with a cake. At 6.30pm ET, 6,700 soldiers accompanied by armored vehicles such as the M1A2 Abrams tanks are scheduled to march down Constitution Avenue Northwest past the White House, as Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters fly overhead. Trump will appear to preside over an enlistment and reenlistment ceremony and accept a flag from the Golden Knights Parachute Team, before fireworks will fill the sky. 'I think it's time for us to celebrate a little bit. You know, we've had a lot of victories,' Trump said earlier this week. He has denied any connection between the parade and his birthday, instead noting that it coincides with the Flag Day holiday. While Washington DC is used to playing host to an array of events in and around the National Mall and White House, the parade has proven to be particularly disruptive to day-to-day life in the overwhelmingly Democratic city of more than 700,000. Coming at a cost the army estimates to be between $25m and $45m, the parade's preparations have caused the closure of busy roads for up to four days, while flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport will halt for an unspecified time during the event. City leaders have expressed concerns that the tanks and armored vehicles will damages roads not designed for their weight, and the army has said they will place metal plates on parts of the route, and outfit the equipment with rubber on their treads. 'President Trump's longstanding wish to waste millions of taxpayer dollars for a performative military parade in the style of authoritarian leaders is finally coming true on his birthday,' said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the federal district's Democratic non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. She condemned the event's expected impact on the city's roads, as well as the decision to hold it after Trump's administration spent months firing federal workers or coaxing them to resign. 'Although this parade will feed President Trump's ego and perhaps his base, it will not serve any legitimate purpose,' Holmes Norton said.
