You’ve probably seen this video by now because it’s everywhere on social media this afternoon. Sen. Alex Padilla showed up at a press conference being held by DHS Sec. Kristi Noem and wound up being shoved out of the room and handcuffed.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a news conference related to immigration.
“I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla said to Noem, which prompted several men dressed in plain clothes to physically push him out of the room. A top FBI official later said bureau personnel and Secret Service agents were involved in the senator’s removal.
Padilla’s office shared a video of the incident with NBC News. The video shows Padilla being taken into a hallway outside and pushed face forward onto the ground as officers with FBI-identifying vests told the senator to put his hands behind his back. The officers then handcuffed him.
This was obviously a stunt from the outset. Padilla’s version of events is that he was nearby and decided to show up and ask a question.
“I was there peacefully,” he said. “At one point, I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room, I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed.”
That makes it sound like this was a Q&A where reporters were given a chance to ask questions and Padilla asked one and was treated roughly for it. But that’s not what happened. Instead, he entered the room, moved toward the podium and started talking loudly over Sec. Noem. At that point, Secret Service started pushing him back toward the exit. Only then did he identify himself as a senator.
Okay here’s video of the start of the Padilla Clown Show. You can’t see him but you can hear him shouting over her, and I don’t think he was identifying himself to anyone until after they started trying to stop his clown showpic.twitter.com/5HTBwAnTQC
— FilmLadd (@FilmLadd) June 12, 2025
Fox News’ Bill Melugin was there and saw the whole thing happen. He recorded this video on his phone which doesn’t include the beginning when Sen. Padilla started talking over Sec. Noem.
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
Melugin then appeared on Fox to discuss it. He says he thought Padilla was some kind of protester there to interrupt the press conference. It was only when he saw his face that he recognized who it was. Also note that after this ambush, Sec. Noem talked with Sen. Padilla for about 15 minutes and they exchanged phone numbers.
NEW: My live report on what I witnessed during the incident with CA Senator Alex Padilla today, as I was standing just a few feet away from him when it happened. DHS Sec. Noem told me afterwards they swapped numbers and smoothed things over in a brief meeting after his removal. pic.twitter.com/c5OhWqoIFK
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 12, 2025
Despite the fact that Sec. Noem did her best to resolve this amicably, some Democrats are trying to blame this on her. Sen. Schumer wants “immediate answers.”
.@SenSchumer on @SenAlexPadilla: “I just saw something that sickened my stomach; the manhandling of a United States Senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.” pic.twitter.com/UQnA3XYq2N
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 12, 2025
Sen. Adam Schiff has already demanded Sec. Noem’s resignation.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to resign Thursday after fellow California Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference.
“Kristi Noem should never have been appointed to that office,” Schiff told reporters back on Capitol Hill. “She should resign from that office. There ought to be an investigation of the conduct of those officers.”…
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin quickly fired back at Schiff’s call for Noem’s resignation, telling Fox News Digital, “Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem.”
Schiff has always been a clown so no surprise really. And the talking points have gone out to all the usual suspects.
Well, I see everyone got the talking points memo! pic.twitter.com/SpwRJpV4Bo
— Kate Hyde (@KateHydeNY) June 12, 2025
Meanwhile, Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat in a district Trump won last year, had a very different take.
“I think that it’s never good when a senator or member of Congress gets roughed up by law enforcement,” he said in an interview with Axios at the Capitol. But, he added, “I don’t think politics as theater is what our job is here.”
Political theater is the whole party at this point. It’s what people are doing in the streets protesting the arrests of criminal illegal aliens and it’s what Sen. Padilla was doing at that press conference today.
