Are Sen. Padilla's 15 minutes up yet? Apparently not.
The Senator has an opinion piece in the NY Times today titled "Senator Padilla: This Is How an Administration Acts When It’s Afraid." It opens with a recounting of his attempt to disrupt a press statement by DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
Growing up in the northeast San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s, you know what can happen if you don’t completely cooperate with law enforcement.
Even so, it was jarring last week when, despite clearly identifying myself as a U.S. senator, I was forcibly removed from a news conference at which Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, promised to “liberate” Los Angeles from our democratically elected mayor and governor. As I was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and walked down a hall while officers refused to tell me why I was being detained, my mind raced with questions.
None of this is an accurate description of what happened last week. Padilla did not identify himself as a Senator before he started talking loudly over Sec. Noem. As Secret Service moved to push him out of the room, he pushed back toward Noem. Only when he started to lose the shoving match against two other men did he finally identify himself as a Senator. By that point it was too late. He was interrupting, he was wrestling with Secret Service and they didn't know who he was. Padilla was pushed out of the room, still dragging his feet. Also, he was not "thrown to the ground." Video shows he kneeled and then was told to lay down. One officer pushed his shoulder as he laid down, but he wasn't body slammed. Watch the video for yourself.
🚨 #BREAKING @SenAlexPadilla tries to interrupt a press conference by @DHSgov Sec @KristiNoem and he’s forcibly removed.
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 12, 2025
California’s senior U.S. Senator was handcuffed and detained.
Video from @AlexPadilla4CA’s staff 🚨 pic.twitter.com/PXfszkBXxo
Having left out all of his own questionable behavior for the "paper of record," Sen. Padilla proceeds to identify with Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who carried out a similar stunt yesterday.
I imagined similar questions were running through the mind of Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate, this week when he, too, was handcuffed by federal agents for asking them whether they had a warrant to arrest a migrant he had locked arms with. Like me, Mr. Lander had the audacity to question the legitimacy of federal actions, only to find himself pushed against a wall and detained.
Lander was not arrested for asking for a warrant as Padilla claims. He was arrested for locking arms with a migrant and thereby impeding federal agents doing their jobs.
Do not let them lie to you.@bradlander was not arrested for asking for a warrant.
— Jeffery Mead (@the_jefferymead) June 18, 2025
He was arrested because he physically obstructed a federal arrest. Locking arms and refusing to let ICE do their job is interference, not activism.
It’s quite literally obstruction. pic.twitter.com/h4zdLSsSeq
And then we get to Padilla's scripted line which Democrats have been repeated for days.
If this administration is willing to handcuff a U.S. senator, imagine what it is willing to do to any American who dares to speak up.
If you start talking over a cabinet secretary and then wrestle with the Secret Service, you will get dragged out of the room and probably handcuffed until they can figure out who you are. That would indeed happen to any American who tried this.
So when Mr. Trump began to face a groundswell of criticism a few weeks ago for his unpopular Medicaid cuts, failed tariff wars and embarrassing public breakup with a billionaire adviser, I suspected that it wouldn’t be long before he broke out the same tired anti-immigrant tactics to distract the public. Raids intensified, detentions skyrocketed and Mr. Trump’s narrative of crisis escalated in the hopes of diverting attention from his political failures.
This is, once again, not what happened. The idea that Trump suddenly pivoted to being anti-immigration is truly delusional. Trump has been maximally anti-illegal immigration since the day he announce his first run for office a decade ago. Being anti-immigration was a big part of his reelection campaign in 2024. The idea that he is suddenly adopting this as a distraction is about as far from the truth as one could possibly get. Trump loves to have the attention on his immigration policy. He relishes it. I think even Sen. Padilla knows that but the truth clearly isn't his objective here.
But as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, public safety is not the point — the spectacle is. Americans are living through a historic moment of presidential overreach. With a cabinet of yes-men and underqualified attack dogs surrounding him — from the D.H.S. Secretary to the F.B.I. director to the secretary of defense — Mr. Trump is now testing the boundaries of his power. And he’s using the theatrics around his immigration policies to do it.
The complete disrespect for Sec. Noem is evident here. The Senator isn't just asking questions, he's a partisan attack dog himself. And please note the irony that a person who tried his best to turn a press conference into an impromptu debate with the opposition before the cameras is whining about using "theatrics" to make a point. Padilla has been pure theatrics from the start and hasn't let up since.
So if you thought any of this administration’s theatrics in Los Angeles these past few weeks was truly about immigrants, it’s time to wake up. If federal troops can deploy to Los Angeles against the wishes of the governor, the mayor and even local law enforcement, they can do the same tomorrow in your hometown. This is a fundamental threat to the rule of law nationwide.
The issue of whether Trump can deploy the Guard in California over the objections of the governor is still in the courts, but suffice it to say it's still an open question.
A federal appeals court appeared inclined on Tuesday to allow President Trump, against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, to keep using California’s National Guard for now to protect immigration enforcement agents and quell protesters in Los Angeles.
Throughout a 65-minute hearing, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit signaled skepticism of the idea that the judiciary should second-guess Mr. Trump’s determination that deploying the state militia to Los Angeles is necessary to protect federal agents and buildings.
It's very likely that Trump is going to win on this one in court, i.e. as President of the United States he can do this. If so, it's not a threat to the rule of law, it is the law.
To any American wondering if democracy is lost or if they can ever make a difference, I’d say this: If the Trump administration was this scared of one senator with a question, imagine what the voices of tens of millions of Americans organizing will do. No one is coming to save us but us.
The constitution gives Americans the right to peaceably assemble and protest the government. It does not give them the right to interfere with arrests by federal agents or to shout at cabinet secretaries during press conferences or wrestle with the Secret Service. If you do those things you may get arrested.
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