Sen. Padilla Handcuffed, Forcibly Removed From DHS Press Conference

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was forcibly removed in handcuffs from a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday after attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions. 

In video of the confrontation, Padilla was seen being grabbed and pushed by plain-clothes federal agents before being forced to the ground and handcuffed by law enforcement officers.

Speaking after the confrontation, Padilla said he was waiting for a scheduled meeting with a military official but heard Noem was holding a press conference a few doors down and wanted to ask questions. The senator said he was not arrested and not detained.

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, cooks, day laborers in California and the rest of the country,” Padilla said. “We will hold this administration accountable.”

In a post, the Department of Homeland Security claimed Padilla did not identify himself and that Secret Service agents “thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”

Agents detained Padilla after he identified himself as a senator.

Noem held the press conference over President Donald Trump’s ongoing use of California National Guard troops and Marines within Los Angeles. During the conference, Noem said the Trump administration was attempting to “liberate” Los Angeles from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s and Mayor Karen Bass’s leadership.

“We are not going away,” Noem said. “We are staying here to liberate the city from socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

Padilla’s fellow senators, of both parties, denounced his treatment.

“It’s disgusting,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. “This is not what democracies do. Padilla was there legitimately in that building to ask questions of what’s going on in California.” 

“I’ve seen that one clip,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told CBS News. It’s horrible. It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know.”