U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California — a Democrat — was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles Thursday after interrupting remarks being made by Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Video shared by an NBC News reporter showed Padilla face down on the floor, being handcuffed by what appeared to be DHS officers.
Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A. pic.twitter.com/RLUVYP1Jsb
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 12, 2025
Noem was speaking about the riots in the city, which began Friday in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducting operations to apprehend criminal illegal aliens.
“If you assault a law enforcement officer, we are going to come after you and we are going to arrest you, prosecute you, and put you away,” Noem said.
“We have a Constitution. We follow that Constitution, and the laws that have been passed by our Congress, and we’re going to make sure they are equally applied to every single person,” she added.
Noem noted that law enforcement officers have been pelted with rocks, bricks, bottles, hammers, Molotov cocktails, and their cars have been set on fire.
Do you approve of Noem’s performance as DHS secretary?
The secretary pledged that the ICE operations will continue and increase in the days ahead. “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and mayor have placed on this country and what they’ve tried to insert in this city,” she said.
At this point, Padilla interrupted Noem’s remarks, speaking loudly over her.
BREAKING: California Democratic Senator @AlexPadilla4CA just crashed DHS Secretary Noem’s press conference in LA and was forcibly removed. pic.twitter.com/Q2sUWiImAM
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 12, 2025
“I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is, dozens of criminals that you’re rotating on your …” he began, before being taken out of the room.
“Hands off!” Padilla told the security officers as he was pushed through a doorway.
The senator had not waited for Noem to finish her remarks and take questions, so he appeared intent on making a scene at the news conference.
Padilla said during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, “By last Friday, Trump was drowning in negative headlines. Just as he’s done throughout the years, when all else failed, and everything is going bad, he turned to the same tired playbook. Attack immigrants. Blame immigrants. Manufacture a crisis to try to change the news cycle.”
Sen. PADILLA: By last Friday, Trump was drowning in negative headlines. Just as he’s done throughout the years, he turned to the same tired playbook. Attack immigrants. Blame immigrants. Manufacture a crisis to try to change the news cycle. pic.twitter.com/qHmjaQqFLJ
— Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryDems) June 11, 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has also come out strongly against Trump’s use of the National Guard to quell the riots, posted video on social media of Padilla being thrown out of Noem’s news conference.
Newsom wrote that Padilla “is one of the most decent people I know. This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also posted the video, writing, “What just happened to @SenAlexPadilla is absolutely abhorrent and outrageous. He is a sitting United States Senator. This administration’s violent attacks on our city must end.”
Trump said Tuesday from the Oval Office that he learned a lesson about waiting for Democratic governors to act as cities burned during the Black Lives Matter riots during the summer of 2020. “I said to myself, ‘If that stuff happens again, we’ve got to make faster decisions,’” he recalled.
“I’ve been here before and I went right by every rule,” says @POTUS on deploying the National Guard.
“I waited for governors to say, ‘Send in the National Guard’. They wouldn’t do it … I said to myself, ‘If that stuff happens again, we’ve got to make faster decisions.’” pic.twitter.com/bQAaIkbSCn
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 10, 2025
And in this case, two days of waiting was enough before he sent in the National Guard starting on Sunday.
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