Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), whom most people couldn’t pick out of a line-up before last week, wants America to believe his little performance during a Homeland Security press conference was totally spontaneous. Just an organic moment of righteous frustration, he claims. But we know better—his whole stunt reeked of a desperate cry for attention, and the more he tries to explain it away, the more obvious that becomes.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Padilla tried spinning his headline-grabbing antics as an innocent attempt to get information. “You can’t script this in Hollywood,” he said with dramatic flair, insisting he just happened to be near the press conference while waiting for a briefing and spontaneously decided to pop in, wearing plain clothes and lacking his Senate Security pin. He was apparently stunned—stunned!—that the press conference didn’t meet his expectations: “Surprise, surprise, no substance came from that press conference, just political attacks.”
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Then, naturally, he says he had to speak up. Not for the cameras, of course. Not to score a viral moment. No, no. Just to ask a question and, you know, charge the dais where a Secret Service-protected cabinet official was speaking. “I needed to speak up,” Padilla declared. “I needed to try to get the information from the secretary that they have refused to provide.”
But within seconds of opening his mouth, he charged the dais, and the Secret Service agents protecting Kristi Noem moved in. “I couldn’t get a couple of words out before obviously you saw agents respond, hands on me pretty much immediately.”
Yeah, that’s what her security is supposed to do.
When CNN pressed him on the accusation from DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin that he “tried to manufacture a viral moment,” Padilla dismissed it as completely false. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he claimed, before reiterating his canned line that he just happened to be escorted to the press conference and stood there quietly until—poof!—he couldn’t contain himself any longer.
And that, right there, is the tell. He wasn’t dragged off while screaming or charging the podium. No, he was supposedly standing calmly, asking a question like any good senator. But that’s not what happened.
“We were conducting a press conference to update everyone on the enforcement actions that are ongoing to bring peace to the City of Los Angeles,” Noem told Fox News last week. “And this man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me, and elevating his voice.”
ICYMI: Even CNN Couldn’t Defend Padilla’s Phony Stunt
He claims he was just asking a question, but he interrupted her as she was speaking. It’s literally on video. He approached the dais, resisted the Secret Service agents, and, frankly, acted like a deranged nut.
.@SenAlexPadilla berates @Sec_Noem as she highlights the vicious criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, and gangbangers the Trump Administration has gotten off the streets of LA.
Democrats will stop at nothing to put criminal illegals over American citizens. pic.twitter.com/TfcWgkgJ7J
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 12, 2025
“If that’s how they treat a senator trying to ask a question… imagine what they are doing to so many people without titles,” he said, apparently under the delusion that people even know what he looks like.
Senator Padilla is trying to rewrite a staged performance as a moment of conscience. But, his biggest problem is we have video evidence of how it really went down.
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