00:00President. I just want to first thank my colleague from California for
00:06stating it so plain about the character of the individual we're talking about.
00:11We have justifiable disagreements in this body. We have strong held beliefs in
00:16this body. We have real debates and arguments in this body, but it has been
00:21generations and generations and generations since there's been violence
00:25in this body. I stand with my back towards the chamber where there was the
00:30caning of Sumpner during the slavery debates and a House member came over and
00:35beat a United States senator within an inch of this life. You see there's a
00:39decorum here where we have this mutual respect and we understand that violence
00:43is absolutely unacceptable. And if there's anybody that is a man that shows that
00:49kind of decency and that kind of peace, my colleague from California put it so
00:53plainly. Alex Padilla, like many of my colleagues across the aisle, he's one of
00:57the people of true character here. And I think that's why today has hurt so many of
01:03us personally, is because of what this breach of this body actually means to all of
01:12us. We know the dangers of violence in a democracy and the insidiousness that
01:23violence presents or that fear of violent reprisal presents. Jefferson said it so
01:31eloquently, when people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the
01:39government fears its people, there is liberty. What is so disturbing, when you
01:48see a member of this body thrown to the floor, a knee on his shoulder, arms being
01:57wrenched behind him after he has identified himself as a United States
02:01senator, is literally what Alex Padilla said. I'm going to pull from what I know he's
02:11already said publicly, but this is what he also has written privately. Alex Padilla
02:19says, if this is what they do to a senator with a question, imagine what they're doing to
02:26farm workers, day laborers, cooks, and so many other of the nonviolent
02:34immigrants they're targeting. You see, Alex Padilla knows something about this
02:39country, which is that we are all, as Martin Luther King so eloquently wrote in
02:44those letters from the Birmingham jail, when he was jailed for his nonviolent civil
02:49disobedience, what Alex Padilla knows is what King said so eloquently, that we are
02:55all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a common garment of
03:02destiny, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. That when you
03:09have a president that so exceeds his constitutional authority, that he begins to
03:14do things to infringe upon the fundamental rights and securities of other
03:19Americans, it's a threat to all Americans. This is why, right across the way, I can
03:25almost see it looking through these windows, why the Supreme Court, with
03:29nominees from both parties, with three Donald Trump appointees on it, ruled 9-0 in
03:38support of the due process rights of someone in our country that was
03:43not even a citizen of this nation. Because of the Constitution using the word
03:49any persons, knowing that if you erode the due process rights of anybody in this
03:55nation, it's a threat to the due process rights of everyone in this nation. Injustice
04:00anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Understand what we saw today. A United
04:07States senator forcibly removed from a room in a federal building, a federal
04:13official, forcibly removed from a federal building after he identified himself as a
04:20United States senator. But after he was out of that building, they did not stop there.
04:24They drove our colleague to his knees and then forcibly shoved him upon his face, wrenched his arms behind him.
04:36And Alex Padilla writes that if they do that to me, what are they doing to farm workers and cooks and
04:48domestics? What are they doing to other people? What does that mean if they're using the violent
04:55force of government unjustly against him? This is a breach. This body has not
05:06seen such a breach in my lifetime or longer where the executive has treated an honorable member of
05:16this body in this way. That should be enough. But our colleague correctly points out that if we are in
05:26an environment where that is happening to a United States senator, what does it say? If the government of
05:32the United States is unjustly taking violent action against the United States senator, dear God, what does it mean for other Americans?
05:42That's what Alex Padilla asked today.
05:46Now, I will tell you this. This is not an isolated incident. That is the challenge. We have already seen the actions taken against a mayor, a local government official.
06:00A local government official who himself was forcibly handcuffed, dragged into a police vehicle, held
06:10for hours as a prisoner. And then when he finally got before a judge, that judge reprimanded this administration
06:22for an abuse of an abuse of their power. Alex Padilla sees this with the violation of the due process rights
06:33of individuals going on in this country. Alex Padilla has seen this with a mayor in America unjustly incarcerated, handcuffed, held.
06:45This is the challenge we have in this moment.
06:55I love this quote by my favorite author, James Baldwin, who wrote this letter the night that authorities came and arrested Angela Davis.
07:03He said, if they come for you in the morning, then they will come for me at night.
07:11If they come for you at the morning, then they will come for me at night.
07:16This administration, in its abuse of power, in the audacity of handcuffing, of violently assaulting,
07:31of forcibly pushing to his knees and onto his stomach a United States senator, what does that say?
07:38We all gather right there as senators to raise our hand and swear our oath to uphold the Constitution,
07:50but we're not the only ones. Members of the Supreme Court do that. They're not the only ones with members of this body.
07:58Administrative officials do that as well. We are bound by the laws of this land.
08:05And the terrifying thing for every American should be a government that is not restrained by the law,
08:16by a government that misuses its power, and not just its power, its power to use violence unjustly against its citizenry.
08:30That's when we slip away from our democratic ideals, from our constitutional principles,
08:36and slide towards an authoritarian government that wants to make its people heal before them, kneel before them.
08:44That's what I physically saw with my own eyes, a member of this body being driven to his knees.
08:52For asking a question. For standing up to speak truth to power. What was the response?
09:05The response was violence. Being dragged out of that room.
09:11Being forced to his knees. Being thrown prostrate and being handcuffed.
09:18And here is the thing that frustrates me the most.
09:27Is this is another day where the lead stories will be about the actions of this administration.
09:34We've seen a week where it is violating a tradition that's gone back before I was born where the federal government should activate federal troops in a community goes through.
09:47In fact, I know the statute, Article 10, Section 12406.
09:58That they should go through the governors, work in coordination with them.
10:02But no, this was a provocative incident of moving military troops at the expense of taxpayers into a community where even the leader of the police department says this is wrong.
10:12All of this from the beginning of our week to this unprecedented action of violently removing a United States senator from a federal building, from a room thrown upon the ground, driven to his knees and handcuffed.
10:31This is all purposefully being done in our country by a president that has a different view of his authorities as president.
10:44That if a judge criticizes him, he believes it is wrong.
10:49He drew reprimand from the Supreme Court for his calling out justices whose opinions he disagrees with.
11:02This is a president that doesn't believe in the checks and balances of our Constitution.
11:07But the frustrating thing about all of this is it is distracting us, this dangerous, violent distraction from the bill that we should be discussing on this floor about the ripping away of health care for millions of Americans,
11:25the cutting of food stamps for millions of children, the cutting of food stamps for millions of children, the cutting of services for disabled Americans, the cutting of supports for our senior citizens.
11:37This monumental moment, the biggest transfer of wealth from working people in America to millionaires and billionaires, this moment that should be dominating our attention and our focus,
11:50this imminent bill that's being debated and discussed here in the Senate right now that has such incredible consequences, putting $2.4 trillion more of debt in our country,
12:03raising the energy costs on the average American by hundreds of dollars, this bill that would raise the premiums of people in our nation by hundreds of dollars,
12:15this bill that merits debate and discussion because it is so violative of our common values,
12:22this bill that takes food away from the hungry, health care away from the sick,
12:28that takes working people and makes their challenges harder, all to give more tax cuts to billionaires and drives up our deficit by the trillions.
12:40That should be the central conversation in our country.
12:44But this president, almost as if he knows the unpopularity of his bill, the betrayal of his bill,
12:53is misusing, abusing his powers and trying to change the conversation in the most despicable of ways.
13:05Abusing his authority, treading on our traditions, violating our constitution,
13:10and now perhaps one of the greatest violent assaults on a member of this body by the executive.
13:18This is not metaphorical. This is literal.
13:21A member of this body, after identifying himself, physically and forcibly dragged out of a room in a federal building.
13:31Then, when the doors were closed, you can see it on the camera, the federal government, the executive branch,
13:39taking a member of this body, a member of the United States Senate, a co-equal branch of our government,
13:45and driving that man to his knees, slamming him upon his face, wrenching his arms behind his back.
13:53That's what we're talking about in this body right now.
14:00This is a dangerous time in America.
14:04When the president from the Oval Office says, almost daringly,
14:08do not protest my parade, warns people about protests,
14:14and this is the thing that the president of the United States doesn't understand about this country.
14:21When a president is violating norms and traditions, violating our constitution,
14:27dissent is not unpatriotic. Protest is not un-American. Silence is unpatriotic.
14:41This is a time where protest is justified. Peaceful protest is necessary and vital.
14:50This is a time where speaking up and exercising your constitutional principles,
14:56like freedom of speech, like freedom of assembly, like the right to petition your government,
15:02is demanded by our democracy.
15:05When you have a president that so flagrantly violates the checks and balances,
15:11so much so that their authorities today kept a senator from stepping forward
15:18and asking questions to an executive official, and is met by violence.
15:28This is exactly the time that our founders saw that we must stand up and speak up and protest peacefully
15:37and let our voices be heard, because silence in a time like this is complicity.
15:43And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have to see this.
15:49It doesn't take that much mental acuity to understand that if this was the Biden administration or the Obama administration,
16:00and an official used their security detail to put another person in this body,
16:08to put a senator from the other side of the aisle on their knees and in handcuffs, we would see outrage.
16:16This is not about left or right. This is about right or wrong.
16:19And today, we saw a deep, grave wrong heaped upon not just this body, but as Alex Padilla wrote,
16:28so eloquently upon the ideals, because if you could do this to a United States senator,
