LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration defended its handcuffing of Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday, saying the Secret Service believed he was an attacker during a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Padilla of “disrespectful political theater” and said officers “acted appropriately” in a statement following the incident. Noem and Padilla met for 15 minutes after the press conference, she said.
The forcible removal and handcuffing of the California senator just as he was identifying himself marked the latest escalation between the Trump administration and Democrats over immigration, with members of Padilla’s party roundly denouncing the encounter.
Video provided by Padilla’s office shows the senator approaching the lectern as Noem was speaking. He was stopped and shoved back by multiple men.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” he said. He tried to speak further as he was forcibly removed into an adjoining room, where he yelled “Hands off!”
The video shows Padilla being forced to the ground and his arms handcuffed behind his back.
The outburst came as Noem was touting federal law enforcement’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, highlighting individuals with violent criminal records who were caught in the raids. Earlier in the week, Noem had described Los Angeles as a “city of criminals” while slamming the immigration protests.
Speaking to the media not long after the confrontation, Padilla said he was in the federal building for a scheduled briefing when he decided to drop by Noem’s news conference down the hall. He said he began to ask the secretary a question when he was “forcibly removed” from the room, forced to the ground and handcuffed.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question … you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers,” Padilla said. “We will hold this administration accountable.”
The Trump administration blamed the confrontation on the senator’s conduct.
“Padilla stormed a press conference, without wearing his Senate pin or previously identifying himself to security, yelled, and lunged toward Secretary Noem,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson. “Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention. Padilla embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature, theater-kid stunt – but it’s telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA.”
Noem similarly chastised Padilla’s attempt to interrupt the press conference as “completely inappropriate” and suggested he may have been intentionally attempting to cause conflict for political purposes.
“The way that he acted was completely inappropriate,” Noem said in a Fox News interview. “It wasn’t becoming of a U.S. senator or a public official, and perhaps he wanted the scene.”
Responding to the swift outcry from Democrats, Noem insisted that politicians “get over themselves” and focus on the Trump administration’s effort to “clean up America” through deportation actions.
Democrats swiftly rallied around Padilla, arguing there was no justification for the sitting senator to be aggressively manhandled.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the treatment of Padilla “outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful” in a social media post shortly after the incident.
“Trump and his shock troops are out of control,” he wrote.
In Washington, Democratic senators walked out of their final vote of the day visibly agitated by the video.
“As this event with Senator Padilla shows, the Republicans evidently embrace using fists,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told POLITICO. “Violence is never the answer. … It’s looking more and more like a fascist state out there every day.”
“It’s very disturbing,” Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia told POLITICO. “We need answers.”
Sen. Adam Schiff of California said he was “disgusted by what I saw,” adding that Padilla has “every right to ask questions.”
He said, “Kristi Noem should never have been appointed to that office. She should resign from that office.” He called for an investigation into the conduct of the officers who detained Padilla.
The confrontation earned a swift rebuke from other fellow Californians in Congress, who quickly gathered on the Capitol steps to protest Padilla’s treatment.
“Forcibly removing a United States Senator from a press conference is disgraceful,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, said on X. “This administration’s chaos and corruption is out of control.”
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina suggested Padilla got what he was looking for out of the exchange.
“He got what he wanted, he’s on TV,” Graham said.
He said, “What he ought to be doing, in my view, is making sure that we have rational immigration policy. And Senator Padilla, who’s a nice man, sat on the sidelines for four years, watched the border completely be blown apart. People come in by the millions, and it’s created problems for our country.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he had seen video of the incident but wanted “to get the facts and find out exactly what happened before we make any comments about it.”
At least one Republican senator, however, expressed misgivings about how Padilla was handled.
“It’s horrible,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know”
Jordain Carney, Aaron Pellish and Megan Messerly contributed to this report.
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