Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responds to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) being forcibly removed from a DHS briefing.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Congressman, can you give a reaction to Senator Padilla and that altercation with the DHS agents?
00:04I mean, I think we need to see this for what it is.
00:07There's two grave and extremely alarming elements to what just happened.
00:14First and foremost, a United States senator who identified himself as such,
00:19who sought a question pursuing his constitutional duty and ability to conduct oversight,
00:28to ask the Cabinet Secretary a question, was assaulted, thrown to the floor, and arrested.
00:35And then secondly, what is also deeply alarming is that the Department of Homeland Security,
00:42under Secretary Kristi Noem, has gone to the public and lied on record,
00:49saying that he did not identify himself when there is video evidence
00:53that they are being dishonest with the American people.
00:57There must be a retraction.
00:59We must have an investigation of what just happened.
01:01This is a deeply alarming escalation in the violence of the Trump administration.
01:07They have released chaos and unleashed chaos in the city of Los Angeles
01:13by violently raiding and ripping apart peaceful public spaces.
01:17And now they're tackling and they are arresting United States sitting members of Congress
01:23while going on the record and lying about what happened.
01:27This is an out-of-control agency and there must be consequences.
01:31Do you think that this sends a message not only to yourself but other lawmakers
01:35who want to go out and be able to ask questions to different secretaries?
01:39Of course, for an administration that has talked about free speech, the First Amendment,
01:45respect for the rule of law, we are seeing that they are threatening judges.
01:49They are arresting judges for people who do not rule in the way that they agree with.
01:55They have openly talked about punishing Supreme Court justices for not ruling in the way
02:02that they want them to rule.
02:05They are falsely and egregiously indicting members of Congress on baseless accusations.
02:14They are being incredibly reckless in what they're doing.
02:17And this is all coming down not to the facts, not to crime, not to the law,
02:23but to political intimidation.
02:25And we will not be intimidated.
02:27We will not be silenced.
02:28If they want to come in and arrest every member of Congress, they can come and get us.
02:33But at some point, the Republican Party and the Senate, the United States Republican Senate,
02:40needs to decide what is an impeachable offense.
02:43Because at a certain point, it will not be about Democrats and Republicans.
02:47They will start going after Republican senators who do not do what they want.
02:51So what kind of environment do we want here and here?
02:53According to Congressman Issa, things have already begun to smooth over between Christine Noem
02:58as well as Mr. Padilla.
02:59They've already exchanged phone numbers, and they've already said that the charges are not
03:04going to be filed whatsoever.
03:05So can you talk to this already that basically they've started communicating?
03:09I find it very interesting that the Secretary of Homeland Security somehow does not, is claiming
03:18to not recognize or know who the United States Senator for the state of California is when
03:24her express job is to be interacting with us all the time.
03:29She knows who I am.
03:31She better know who he is because she's been all up in the city of Los Angeles.
03:36And we're supposed to believe that she doesn't know who the two United States Senators for
03:40the state of California are?
03:42No.
03:44We have to go.