Mike Johnson Calls For The Censure Of Alex Padilla Following Incident With Sec. Kristi Noem

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke with reporters on Thursday, where he was questioned about an incident with Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sec. Kristi Noem.

Transcript

00:00Did federal agents go too far the way they treated Senator Padilla today?

00:04Was that a bridge too far?

00:05I saw the same video, a very brief video, that I think many people did.

00:09I think the senator's actions, my view is it was wildly inappropriate.

00:13You don't charge a sitting cabinet secretary, and everybody can draw their own conclusions.

00:18You can see it's a heated debate here.

00:22I'm not going to respond to that.

00:23Look, let me just, hold on, wait just a second.

00:26I think the American people can draw their own conclusions.

00:29They saw a senator acting like wildly inappropriate, I'll leave it at that.

00:34But what about the way he was treated by the day that he was pushed?

00:37What I saw was agents asking him to brighten down so that the secretary could continue her press conference.

00:46He refused to do so.

00:47What were they supposed to do?

00:49They have to restrain someone who is engaging in that kind of behavior.

00:52They moved him out of the room.

00:53Threw him to the ground, handcuffed him?

00:55A sitting member of Congress should not act like that.

00:58It is beneath a member of Congress.

01:00It is beneath a U.S. senator.

01:01They're supposed to lead by example, and that is not a good example.

01:04We have to turn the temperature down in this country and not escalate it.

01:07The Democrat Party is on the wrong side.

01:09They are defending lawbreakers, and now they are acting like lawbreakers themselves.

01:14And I think that's oversight, charging a cabinet secretary in a press conference.

01:19I beg to differ.

01:20I think that people do as well.

01:21I think those actions speak for themselves.

01:23What would you say about lowering the temperature in the country right now?

01:26What would you say?

01:26You know, Scott, I have things to say about lowering the temperature all the time.

01:31I am very consistent in this.

01:32We have been trying to do this since I was handed the gavel in before.

01:35I founded the Honor and Civility Caucus in the Congress, for crying out loud, when I got here in 2017.

01:39I think that we should act according to our offices.

01:43We have a duty and a responsibility to set a tone, an example in our actions.

01:47And I encourage every member of this body to do it in the House and Senate.

01:50We have to turn the temperature down.

01:52We need to be on the side of the rule of law.

01:55We need to be on the side of law and order.

01:57We need to be on the side of calm and not chaos.

02:01And when members go into these settings and act this way, when they push law enforcement agents around,

02:06when they storm cabinet secretaries in a press conference,

02:08I think it's wildly inappropriate behavior, and I think it sets a terrible message in tone for the rest of the country.

02:14Will there be an investigation? Will there be a House investigation?

02:16This is a Senate-side issue, but I certainly hope that behavior is not repeated over the years.

02:21But you're the constitutional officer for this branch of Congress.

02:23I am, yes.

02:23You just affect all members, whether they be in the House or Senate.

02:26You're the Speaker of the House.

02:27Yes.

02:27You're the constitutional officer of this branch.

02:30Yeah, and what of it?

02:31The idea that you said this is a Senate issue.

02:33I mean, these are members of Congress.

02:35I mean, yeah, but the Senate does its disciplinary actions over there, and we do ours over here.

02:42We have a certain set of measures, as you all know, and it ranges from censure to removal from committees to ultimately expulsion from the body.

02:50And do you support that for the senator?

02:52It's not my decision to make.

02:53I'm not in that chamber.

02:54But I do think that it merits immediate attention by their colleagues over there.

03:00I think that that behavior, at a minimum, it rises to the level of a censure.

03:05I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we are going to do.

03:09That's not how we're going to act.

03:11We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging cabinet secretaries.

03:16We've got to do better, and I hope that we will.

03:19But I want to say this is a good day for the House chamber.

03:21However, the first recidivance package is now passed through the House.

03:25I expect it will pass through the Senate.

03:26I expect our one big, beautiful bill will continue to be processed as it is and that we'll get it back and get it done on a tight schedule.

03:32I'm still trying to meet our July 4th deadline so we can have a celebration on Independence Day.

03:36And having good legislation passed will put everybody in a better mood.

03:39So I'm looking forward to it.

03:40Thanks.

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