Lawmakers react to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) being forcibly removed from a DHS press briefing.
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00:00So I've just watched the video of the abuse of Senator Padilla and I'm just
00:08disgusted by what I saw. He went to this briefing, he had questions for the
00:13secretary. He has every right to ask questions, indeed that is his
00:17responsibility. And to be treated the way he was, to be essentially brought to the
00:22ground and shackled after identifying himself, is a disgraceful action.
00:28Christy Noem should never have been appointed to that office. She should
00:31resign from that office. There ought to be an investigation of the conduct of
00:35those officers. She may not want to answer questions, indeed she doesn't want
00:41to answer questions because the actions of the administration have been
00:44disgraceful, both in how they have conducted their indiscriminate raids and
00:48how they have separated families, but also by abusing the military in the way
00:53they have, by calling out the National Guard over the objections of the governor
00:57of California, mobilizing the Marines when it was utterly unnecessary and in
01:02violation of the law. And Alex Padilla had every right to go into that room and
01:07demand answers. That is what a senator does. And for him to get that kind of
01:13abusive treatment, every senator who works in this capital should be offended by this
01:21and outraged by this. And I know I speak for millions and millions of Californians. We
01:28are grateful to have Senator Padilla's leadership. He is well respected here on
01:33both sides of the aisle. We're proud of him standing up for our mutual
01:38constituents. And the way he was treated and abused today is just disgraceful. But it
01:45shows the utter disregard that this administration has for any bounds of law or
01:52civility, any appreciation of the separation of powers between the branches of government
01:59and that it has already descended to this within the first 150 days tells us what a terrible period
02:07is yet to come for the country. Watching that footage of him just being forced out of that briefing,
02:17pushed and shoved and then brought to the ground and what looked to be handcuffed with his arms behind
02:26his back for doing his job. It's just outrageous and disgraceful and sickening to watch.
02:34It turns anyone, anyone who looks at this, it will turn their stomach to look at this video
02:44and see what happened, reeks, reeks of totalitarianism. This is not what democracies do.
02:53I had a great conversation, sat down and talked for 10-15 minutes about operations in LA, some activities
02:59of the Department of Homeland Security. And so I thought it was very productive and I
03:03I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know
03:08who he was and that he wanted to talk. His approach, you know, was something that I don't
03:13think was appropriate at all. But the conversation was great and we're going to continue to communicate.
03:18We exchanged phone numbers and we're going to continue to talk on ways we can.
03:21Why did you detain him? Why was that the action you decided to take?
03:24I'll let the law enforcement speak to how this situation was handled, but I will say that
03:28it's people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people during press conferences.
03:34Is it appropriate?
03:35But once he said he was senator.
03:36Did he apologize, Secretary?
03:38Senator from Hawaii.
03:40You know, I've given a lot of speeches on this floor and this is the least prepared,
03:43but the most clear I will ever be. This is the stuff of dictatorships.
03:48It is actually happening. A United States senator was manhandled, shoved to the ground and cuffed.
04:00He identified himself. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. That should be enough. That should be enough.
04:09A United States senator who is, by the way, protected by the speech and debate clauses of the Constitution of
04:14the United States and a specific statute that allows him to oversee immigration facilities.
04:21And he says, I'm a senator and I have a question. And to Chris Murphy's point, they said, well,
04:26he was being disrespectful. Being disrespectful is legal. Being disrespectful is American.
04:37Being disruptive is okay if it's just using your words and not your body.
04:42It's just using your body. This is the stuff of dictatorships. And the thing that is making me
04:46most terrified is I see zero Republicans except for the presiding officer in this chamber.
04:54And I understand. If it's not a member of your own party, you want some context.
05:00There is no context that justifies this action.
05:05Alex Padilla is not required to be impeccable in every single way in order to exercise his
05:13responsibilities as an American and as one of the two that represents California in the
05:19United States Senate. This is the stuff of dictatorships.
05:21One of the officers who throws him to the ground, as he's clearly complying, cuffs him face down on the
05:34carpet. And they say, there's no recording in here. It's a damn press conference. It's for recording.
05:42They didn't want to hear his speaking.
05:43And if the internet is got it accurately, the secretary was there and delivering her remarks
05:53within earshot the whole time. She has command authority over those agents who are arresting
06:01a leader in the legislative branch. This is not some thing on the internet for us to argue about. We all know
06:08what we saw. We all know what we saw. I remain hopeful that Leader Thune and other Republicans can walk us
06:22back from the brink. But I am not so sure anymore. So as Trump's Department of Homeland Security raises
06:32the stakes and continues with a series of provocations to justify increasingly authoritarian actions,
06:41we have two obligations. One is to establish that as a legislative branch, we are not going to stand
06:47for this. And the other is those people who are peacefully protesting, be very disciplined this weekend.
06:54Be very peaceful this weekend. If we are going to win, we need to maintain the high ground. And I don't
07:03mean we blue, we Democrats. I mean we Americans who believe in this system of government. I have never,
07:11ever, other than January 6th, been so outraged at the conduct of an administration.
07:18Okay. Stunning. Senator Alex Padilla, California, was just forcefully removed from the news conference
07:27being held by DHS Kristi Noem in Westwood. Senator attempted to interrupt Noem. That's the title.
07:32He was handcuffed in the hallway. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, for the record, he rushed the podium.
07:38He was being disruptive. And that is not conducive to a member of an elected body. A senator was
07:43forcefully shut to the ground and arrested. All right. Order. Chair recognize Mr. Mann,
07:48from California. Make no mistake, the effort to manhandle our colleague, to push him out of the
07:56room for asking an inconvenient question, to handcuff him, is an attempt to shut him up.
08:03It's an attempt to shut everybody up if you have a dissenting view from this administration. That's why
08:10the administration has deployed the military in an unprecedented way. They want to intimidate you.
08:17This is a horrifying moment in our nation's history. Today, United States Senator Alex Padilla was
08:23violently removed from a public briefing for asking questions on behalf of the people he represents.
08:31People in California who deserve answers about the brutal crackdown on protesters. I've watched the
08:40video as many of you have as well. Let me just describe what it shows. Officers pushed Senator Padilla
08:48backwards out of the room as he said the words, I am Senator Padilla. I have questions for the secretary.
08:56He was then shoved to the ground. When the senator complied with the officers and went on his knees,
09:03he was forcibly pinned onto his stomach. He was ordered to put his hands behind his back. He can be
09:11heard on the video saying he is trying to comply with their orders. Officers then put handcuffs on the
09:18senator while he was lying on the ground. His staff was then told to stop recording the handcuffing.
09:27He was put in handcuffs for asking a simple question. He was put in handcuffs for doing his job
09:35as a United States Senator. He was put in handcuffs for standing up for the Constitution of the United
09:44States. He was put in handcuffs for representing the people of California.
09:50This is a farce of a justification and therefore we are at a crossroads. Will my colleagues on the
10:02other side of the aisle, will my Republican colleagues justify the treatment of one of the
10:07members of this body? Justify the violence against one of the members of this body? Justify a member
10:13of this body being thrown upon the ground and putting handcuffs for what? For just for disrespectful
10:18behavior. If you think it stops with one, you are inviting it for the all because it does not. You
10:25are inviting it for every member of this body. If the Obama administration or the Biden administration
10:33said that a senator on the other side of the aisle was being disrespectful and threw that senator violently
10:40onto the ground and put him into handcuffs, this body would be full of my colleagues on the other side
10:46of the aisle condemning what the Biden Justice Department did or the Obama Justice Department.
10:51This should not be about partisanship. This should be about patriotism. This should not be about
10:57tribalism. It should be standing up and being a leader in this moment. This is wrong. This violence is wrong.
11:07I mean, yeah, but the Senate does its disciplinary actions over there and we do ours over here. We have a
11:16certain set of measures, as you all know, and it ranges from censure to removal from committees to ultimately
11:21expulsion from the body. And do you support that for the senator? It's not my decision to make. I'm not in that
11:27chamber. But I do think that it merits immediate attention by other colleagues over there and that they
11:33I think that that behavior at a minimum is, um, it rises to the level of a censure. I think there
11:39needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we're going to do. That's not
11:43how we're going to act. We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators
11:48charging cabinet secretaries. We got to do better. And I hope that we will. I saw the same video,
11:54a very brief video that I think many people did. I think the senator's actions, my view is it was
11:59wildly inappropriate. You don't charge a sitting cabinet secretary and everybody can draw their
12:04own conclusions. You can see it. I'm not going to respond to that. I look, let me just hold on.
12:12Wait just a second. I think the American people can draw their own conclusions. They saw a senator
12:17acting like, uh, uh, uh, wildly inappropriate. I'll leave it at that. What I saw, what I saw was
12:26agents asking him to, uh, brighten down so that the, you know, the secretary could continue her
12:32press conference. He refused to do so. What were they supposed to do? They have to restrain someone
12:37who is, uh, engaging in that kind of behavior. They, uh, they moved him out of the room to the ground
12:41and a sitting member of Congress should not act like that. It is beneath a member of Congress. It
12:46is beneath a U. S. Senator. They're supposed to lead by example. And that is not a good example.
12:56I think all of us are still in some state of shock over the video that we just watched a half an
13:03hour ago of one of the most respected leaders in all of the Congress, Alex Padilla, a person of just
13:09unquestioned integrity, uh, someone who has brought, uh, great compassion, uh, for the people of our state
13:16and country to the U S Senate, to see him abused that way, to see him brought down to the ground,
13:23to see him go to a press conference to ask questions, which is not only his right, but his
13:28obligation and to be mishandled that way. Uh, this is an assault not only on the person of Alex Padilla,
13:36but it's an assault on our democracy. Um, this is a administration that has no respect
13:43for our democracy, for our institutions, for the separation of powers, for a co-equal branch of
13:49government. Uh, it has no respect for the people of California. Uh, this is a president who would
13:55call in military troops against the wishes of our own government, um, when it would only inflame the
14:03matter. And now this, and now this terrible abuse of this wonderful public servant. Um, one of the
14:13things that I treasure about the U S Senate is you can come from anywhere. You can start from anywhere
14:18and you can end up in the U S Senate and no one better embodies that part of the American dream and
14:25the dream of our democracy than Alex Padilla. That's right. And there he is going to this press
14:32conference to, to advocate for those who are most vulnerable to ask the questions that need to be
14:39answered. Like what is the basis under the law or constitution to over the objection of the governor
14:47to federalize the guard, to be used against our own people in California. What is the lawful
14:54basis if any, for that action? And if not, what should the consequences be? I understand why
15:01secretary Noem doesn't want to answer these questions because she can't, but it is Alex
15:07Padilla's job to ask those questions and to demand those answers. And we are proud of him. We are proud
15:14of him. We are proud of his courage and his steadfastness and his vigorous representation of the people of
15:20California and we cherish his voice and we will not let this stand. Thank you.
15:30Trump administration is a disgrace. Secretary Noem is a disgrace. The man handling of Senator Alex Padilla
15:39was a complete and total disgrace. Senator Padilla is a good man, a decent man, a patriotic man,
15:48and a hardworking man. He's the very embodiment of what a United States Senator should represent
15:56in this great country of ours anchored in the principle of self-government. He was at that press
16:01conference doing his job, asking questions about what is taking place in California, the state that he
16:11represents and on behalf of the American people. And he was recklessly and aggressively manhandled.
16:18That was unacceptable. It was unconscionable. It was unpatriotic. It's un-American.
16:25And every single person who was involved in manhandling Senator Padilla should be held
16:31accountable to the full extent of the law. So this is not going to end until there is accountability
16:37and until the Trump administration changes its behavior. This administration is not about law and
16:43order. It's about lawlessness and disorder. And that's what we've seen from day one of the Trump
16:50administration. When Donald Trump pardoned hundreds of violent felons who brutally assaulted the Capitol
16:58right behind us. Day one, this administration has been about lawlessness and disorder and we see a
17:05continuing escalation of it. And we're going to make sure that we push back aggressively in every
17:13way possible to hold those individuals accountable who without justification manhandled Senator Alex Padilla.
17:25I'm here today as House Democratic Leader to make it clear. We stand with Senator Padilla.
17:30We stand with the California delegation. We stand with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. And we stand
17:35with the American people.
17:37I'm angry.
17:37Yeah.
17:38The board that votes in the Senate, I'm not sure why he wasn't here voting. But,
17:43you know, Christie's been trying to do her job and you've had a number of people
17:50in the Democrat Party trying to stop ICE agents from doing their job in a lot of different ways. So,
17:55I didn't see the full context. I mean, you see a part of the video, you know, was he trying to
18:01pede her from carrying out her duties. She was doing a press conference. But you don't have any
18:06concerns about the way he was treated? Well, if he was treated like everybody else, you know,
18:11that would be disrupting, you know, our cabinet secretary for doing their jobs. I haven't seen
18:18enough to know what was going on before.
18:23He was recklessly and aggressively manhandled. That was unacceptable. It was unconscionable.
18:31It was unpatriotic. It's un-American. And every single person who was involved in manhandling
18:37Senator Padilla should be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
18:45I associate myself with your remarks and really add that this assault on Senator Padilla today was
18:51an assault on freedom of speech in our country. These thugs who manhandled the senator don't,
18:58probably don't know, it's a federal offense to attack a member of Congress. But that's not what it's
19:06about. It shouldn't be anybody in our country to be treated this way. So when we speak out for Senator
19:13Padilla, we're speaking out for everyone who has a right to speak. How about if they go, it goes to a
19:19Trump administration press conference, seeks clarification and gets thrown to the ground
19:29by thugs. This is just absolutely wrong. Just absolutely wrong. We want everyone to know
19:36that we see it wrong not just for a Senator or a member of Congress, but for every person in our
19:42country. I'm so glad that our delegation, which is so strong, 343 Democrats from California out of 52,
19:51I'll stand in solidarity with Senator Padilla, but stand in solidarity with everyone who wants to ask
19:59a question of our government about their safety. I want to thank Leader Jeffries
20:07and Senator Schiff, the Lofgren, the California delegation and all of our colleagues. Senator
20:14Padilla is living the American dream. He's representing 40 million Californians. He is in his office building,
20:24the federal office building where he offices. And it is a crime to lay your hands on a federal
20:33official. That's what happened today. Senator Padilla was speaking on behalf, as his job,
20:4240 million Californians who have reasonable questions and disagreements with this administration,
20:50this administration that promised to lower the costs that people have on day one. But what are
20:55they doing instead? They're militarizing that federal building and they're preventing people from asking
21:03Kristi Noem questions. And as Senator Schiff said, that is their job. That is our job. But he is speaking
21:12for all of us. He is speaking for Californians when he is asking these important questions and conducting
21:18oversight. And the fact that Kristi Noem's security detail would detain him, take him to the ground,
21:26it's unconscionable and it's un-American. We need answers. We don't need reports. We need answers
21:36from Senator Thune, from Speaker Johnson. We need answers to these questions because Donald Trump's
21:44administration is unhinged. Secretary Hegseth is lying across the street just as he was lying all week.
21:52And Kristi Noem has no answers to any of these questions. And we are demanding answers. And we
22:01are demanding accountability. And this caucus of Democrats will not stand until we get that.
22:07This despicable incident took place in my district today. But let me first say, House Democrats have
22:13been pushing back and fighting back against the unjust actions of ICE, who have deported a lot of
22:19children, including U.S. citizens. They wrongfully detained U.S. citizens. They have taken actions
22:24that violate the law. And now we have this, where they forcefully took down a U.S. senator because he
22:29dared to ask questions of Secretary Noem. Why is she afraid to answer questions? And we have a call to
22:37action. More and more Americans are now going to righteously exercise your right to protest. Go forth and
22:44righteously exercise your right to monitor actions of ICE. Go forth and righteously exercise your right
22:51to attend town halls and rallies. The way we hold this administration accountable is for the American
22:56people to be able to rise up and peacefully exercise your rights to make your voices heard.
23:02All right. Press, we need you. We need you. We need you. We need you to hold them accountable. Media,
23:13it's your country. We need you. So make sure you hold them accountable. Don't cover the distractions.
23:21Cover the actions that lead us towards authoritarianism. Please.
23:25Let me say, as the second most senior member of Homeland Security,
23:36Kristi Noem needs to come to our committee and answer questions. ICE needs to show their faces.
23:41No more masks like 1800 bank robbers or Russian KGB agents in the streets. And stop terrorizing families.
23:50So what can you do at home? It's no King's Day this Saturday. 2,000 rallies across America.
23:57Americans need to show up. Because if we don't show up, democracy dies.
24:02We have votes that have been called.
24:04This is what passes and looks like. Would you like to say a few words?
24:11He had every right, as a member of the United States Senate,
24:15to talk and be an event that was open to the public and the press. Instead, he was manhandled
24:22by law enforcement, forced to the ground and handcuffed. This is an outrage. This is
24:30not the end, I'm afraid, but the beginning of the outrageous,
24:34lawless action being undertaken by this administration and the abuse of the people of California.
24:44As if it can happen to Alex, it can happen to any of those senators on the other side,
24:48or any member of Congress. Or anybody. Or anybody.
24:51What? Acting like a senator. Why don't you stand up for Congress?
25:13Yes, he is.
25:16Yes, he is.
25:19If the floor needs to be off our public.
25:21Yeah.
25:21Yeah.
25:22Okay.
25:24Here.
25:27It's up to them.
25:57It's up to them.