Bulwark Takes - BREAKING: Sen. Padilla Thrown to Floor, HANDCUFFED at Kristi Noem Presser

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Senator Alex Padilla was tackled and handcuffed at a DHS press conference in Los Angeles after attempting to ask Secretary Kristi Noem a question. Sam Stein and Tim Miller break down the unprecedented and shocking event.

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audio boom. Hey guys, it's me Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bullock and I'm here with Tim Miller. We have some really breaking news. About 30 minutes ago, Senator Alex Padilla of California was physically detained, pushed onto the ground and arrested at a press conference featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. His crime, I'm putting it in quotes, and I'll get to that in a little bit, was he had the temerity to be disruptive and ask her a fucking question and push her on some of the stuff that she's been saying out there about the people they're deporting. This footage is ridiculous and outrageous.

Tim, do you wanna go first or should we play the footage? Yeah, no, let's play the footage and then I'll get it on the back. Okay, here's the footage. This is from Padilla's office. You can see it's shot by an aide to the Senator. Thank you. Congratulations and embellishing.

Sir, sir, hands up, hands up. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary because the fact of the matter is a half a dozen violent criminals that you're rotating on your, ice cubes, our red dots, and we're going to be on the ground. On the ground. On the ground. On the ground. Hands behind your back.

Hands behind your back. If you let my hands go, I'll put them behind my back. All right. Cool. Lay flat. Lay flat. Other hand, sir. Other hand.

There's no recording loud out here. All right. I did not know. There's no recording allowed out here. There's no recording allowed out here for FBI rights. There's no recording allowed out here. That's my boss. There's no recording allowed out here. There's no recording allowed out here.

Okay, there you have it. US Senator pushed to the ground, handcuffed, treated like, you know, a trespasser at a federal building. Yeah. Unclear what he did also, right? Like this is a press conference. They're in a federal building. The Department, the Secretary of Homeland Security is having a press conference where she's ostensibly there to take questions from the gathered media. I've been to plenty of press conferences such as this. I've been a PR flack that wrangles people at press conferences. This is not like a private event by nature. It's a public event. You're inviting the cameras in, you're asking to make a point. This is a sender, right? Of course, if a random person

on the street came in and started screaming and shouting and trying to charge the senator, you know, like there are moments where you could be too disruptive. But you can see in that video that this is a sitting US senator that comes in, is trying to ask a question, you know, and maybe out of order, right? Maybe he wasn't called upon, but still in a free country, I believe that is still legal. I believe that you're allowed to ask questions of our elected officials without, you know, without being thrown to the ground and And by jackbooted thugs and that's what happens in this video I mean, I was pretty alarmed when I saw the first 20 seconds of it that just pushed him out into the hallway

Yeah, again, this is a free country like if he and he is identifying yourself I mean, I'm Senator Alex Padilla throughout the video. And to have like this secure this combination of it looks like FBI officials, gnome security, DHS, take him out into the hallway, throw him down onto the ground and handcuff him. He was not presenting any threat. He was not presenting any physical threat. He said that he was a US Senator. And just, this is just when you combine it with what we've seen from this DHS, you know, with the mass agents going around California, it's probably one of the things video is going to ask about.

There there've been tons of examples now, a video we're seeing of mass agents going up to people demanding they have papers, racially profiling them, if they did bullying them, if they do not have papers, pushing them around without presenting any identification. When you combine that type of behavior, combine what I talked about with Andrew Weissman about how Cash Patel is now suing critics of him, they're trying to bully critics, this is an administration that is across the board trying to use authoritarian thug tactics to silence legitimate criticism. And like that is, it is not an

exaggeration to say that is the behavior of an aspiring authoritarian regime. Like the fundamental right of America in the number one amendment in the Constitution is that people have a right to express themselves. Certainly, if anyone has a right to express themselves, it would be a United States Senator at an open press conference who's concerned about how his constituents are being treated by an unelected federal official in in Christina. A federal building. It's he's a United States Senator. It's it's unreal. Um it's kind of leaves you a little bit speechless. It gives truth to the lie that these people care about the First Amendment.

It's bullshit. You know, I was kind of reminded of this for people who are out there being like, oh, well he deserves it. This is a small little anecdote, but early on during the Doge cut days, a number of democratic lawmakers showed up at the Department of Education

and they held a press conference outside the Department of Education to talk about the Doge Cuts. And what happened? Linda McMahon showed up and crashed their press conference. Okay. And that just happens. It was, it was clever. It was, but they, she exercised her free speech. People moved on.

It goes back to the old days when I was campaigning against Mitt Romney in a primary and I was on John McCain's side, we were trying to hit him for being a flip-flopper. We sent a dolphin to his press conference who was making dolphin noises and shouting at him during the press conference. You don't get arrested. That is, again, that democracy, a country that is democratic, that has free speech, it is messy. Sometimes you have to deal with people who are offering counter views to you when you're speaking in public, speaking in public and the idea that this that he should be physically assaulted and handcuffed and handcuffed. Right.

It's crazy. Now. Again, this is a dynamic situation. I'm speaking right now almost 3 p.m. So just keep that in mind when you're listening to this Pedia's office has put out a statement saying that he is no longer in custody. He's currently, he's not currently detained. The office says we are working to get additional information. They say quote, Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles,

exercising his duty to perform congressional oversight of the federal government's operations in Los Angeles and across California. He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guyot and was listening to Secretary Noem's press conference. He tried to ask the secretary a question and was forcibly removed by federal agents forced to the ground and handcuffed. Chuck Schumer went on the floor to denounce this. We can play that video now. Mr. President, I just saw something that sickened my stomach. The manhandling of the United States Senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on. I yield the floor. And then on top of that, we have Lisa Murkowski, among others saying she found this is a Republican saying she found the footage shocking. Quote, it's not the America I know. Maybe. Yeah, but

it is the America we have. It's the American we're becoming. Yeah, right. And I get you get in this point, right? Like the pushback to this, there are a couple pushbacks I want to talk about from the magazine. And ranging in various degrees of bad faith. But one of is that like, look, people voted for this, people voted for this type of immigration enforcement. And you know, so that so this is what they're going to get mass mass deportations. And if you just even try to take that at face level, at face value, well, yeah, but people in California also voted for Alex Padilla.

They voted for Gavin Newsom. They voted for Karen Bass, right? And so these elected officials also have the not only right, but duty to represent the constituents that elected them and the idea that they can be silenced bullied pushed around I that the government can go over Gavin Newsom's head and federalize the California National Guard based on nonsense and then and then physically push the senator to the ground go around the request of the mayor like that is not the democratic process sorry you can't just say oh Americans voted for no not true actually americans did not vote for this just let me just quickly point out it's not just pedia they've brought charges against a sitting member of congress

for interrupting uh you know ice operations in new jersey they went after a mayor sitting mayor i mean that's any one of these would be insane and they are insane, but taking together you having a real pattern here. Yeah. And they went and again, just show the ridiculousness of this, all of them during their testimony in front of Congress, Noem, Patel, et cetera, while talking about the politicization of the government that happened under Biden, how they were going to depoliticize. And like, here we go, going way beyond anything that was ever even imaginable during the Biden years.

Then you have others who are basically for this. Charlie Kirk tweeted, no one is above the law. It's about time these Democrats stop acting like they are. What law did he break? I asked exactly that very question to Charlie Kirk. He has not replied yet. Some people are replying with, he was creating a disturbance, disorderly conduct. Disorderly fucking conduct?

Disorderly fucking conduct? Like he didn't do it. Snowflakes. It's snowflake shit. creating a disturbance disorderly conduct disorderly fucking disorderly conduct snowflakes snowflake shit yeah what are we gonna arrest someone now for criticizing for shouting a question at the DHS secretary as I of all people Charlie Kirk who's like group training we go say like they do this stuff all the time, like go after democratic politicians and troll them and shout them down like trolling is now going to be illegal in this country. You pointed out you were sending me a couple of other spokespeople that are going even further. I mean, this one really was crazy. But Jeremy Redfern, who is used to be spokesman for the

Santas now he's a spokesman for the attorney general of Florida, hinting that they he thinks Padilla should be deported. He's from the valley, man. He's not he's not a foreigner. I don't know what the hell that's talking about, but it's it's grotesque just because he's got a Hispanic last name. He's suggesting he should be deported. I mean, what the hell's that? I mean, I hope this is a wake up call to all you know, I mean, Donald Trump improved a lot with Latina voters and not I'm not out here saying that this is deserved or anything. Obviously, it's not like everyone should just be aware of what's happening. I get should be blunt about it.

There is a racially prof a racial profiling campaign that's happening from this administration that they're doing unapologetically and they're going to they're specifically targeting workplaces in Los Angeles for deportation, where there are a lot of Hispanic workers and the rhetoric coming from the administration about, you know, about who is, you know, who they're going for and who, you know, they think might be a suspect. And it is all in their other non Hispanics that are getting sucked up in the dragnet. But the racial profiling element from this, from the top all the way down to now spokespeople for, for Republican political officials is just

blatant. It's crazy. Um, the flip side of this is, and I don't, I'm not trying to politicize it, but you know, Democrats have been looking for confrontation is one way to put it, but someone to just get up and say, enough's enough, I need answers to these questions. I don't think they anticipated a sitting US Senator getting handcuffed as part of this,

but you can see, I mean, you could feel it tangibly, like the frustration and the anger and the emotion that is percolating now among Democrats over this specifically, but more broadly what's happening in California. It's like you watch something actually take hold. I'm seeing it right in front of me. No, Democratic voters want it and they should. We all, if you will, that oppose what this administration is doing, it's righteous.

It is righteous. And so like extreme circumstances call for extreme countermeasures. This isn't a call to be clownish and to try to show off to get attention for yourself. It's not that. It's just like, there is a lot to be outraged about right now. If you were a senator, again, representing California and your constituents are being targeted and molested unfairly by this administration, by masked thugs, you have a right to get your questions answered. And, and doing so in a manner that's not just, oh, well, I put out a press release and the gentle lady from South Dakota, I hope that you would consider if they're going to act like fucking thugs, then they need to be confronted. And so good on Alex Padilla for doing it.

All right, I'm going to read you a statement that was issued by Trisha McLaughlin. She is DHS spokesperson. She tweets this. Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having a Senate security pan on as he lunged towards Secretary Noem. Mr. Brady was told repeatedly to back away and not comply with the officer's repeated commands secret service thought he was an attacker And officers acted appropriately Senator secretary no met with senator pretty after and held a 15 minute meeting first of all bullshit bullshit I mean we can see the fucking video like what is she was she crazy? You can see the video says I'm a United States senator. I'm a United he says it. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have question for the secretary. Like what

is she talking about? We can all see the video. Yeah, he says it over and over again. This idea that and like, I hate the whole it's the other thing the mag snowflake shit. He was disrespectful. Disrespectful like oh, they care so much about being respectful. Like that is a, that is the high priority. Yeah. Got to uphold the norms. Yeah. It's like they've got to be, they need to be respected. And because you know, the whole thing is such phony baloney. Elsa did not comply with the officer's repeal. He was out in the hallway. He was on the hallway

when they pushed him to the ground and cuffed him. What is she talking about? He did comply with the requests. Like he was, they said to get down on the ground. He was down on the ground. It's like these, these statements, they asked you not to like believe what you see with your own eyes. It's madness.

Well, we'll see where this ends up. I mean, it's going to be a very live, live story. I'm sure we're going to be talking about a lot more. We want to get a you a quick cut video on the news. I'm sure Tim and I will be back talking about it a little bit more. But thank you for subscribing to the feed. Definitely tell your friends about the feed because we do quick and easy like this. We'll talk to you later.