The liberal media went absolutely berserk yesterday when California Senator Alex Padilla rushed towards Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as she was giving a press conference and was hauled out by security, forced onto the floor and handcuffed. Video showed the encounter, including Padilla’s aggressive movement towards Noem, but the media chose only to show him being manhandled by security outside the room, of course. On that portion of the tape, he can be heard telling officers his name and rank, so to speak. Soon afterwards, Padilla was released.
The contention of Democrats was that Padilla was “attacked” for trying to ask a question; they decry the incident as an example of the Trump administration’s authoritarianism. Bloomberg talking heads pondered whether it was a racially-motivated.
Chuck Todd on CNN made the most sensible comment I heard, admitting that neither he nor his colleagues had any idea what kinds of threats might have been made against Noem, or what intel Secret Service agents might have been responding to. Noem, as the public face of Homeland Security and ICE, has almost certainly entertained threats against her life.
The whole event is akin to the Left’s narrative that President Trump sent National Guard troops into LA even though there had been no violence; the supposition is that Trump is simply showing off his power. It’s all so entirely dishonest.
Here’s Padilla’s own self-serving comment on X:
“If that’s what they do to a United States Senator with a question, imagine what they can do to any American that dares to speak up. We will hold this administration accountable.” This talking point must have been distributed by the DNC as I saw it everywhere.
Padilla also gave this account of what happened:
“I attended Secretary Noem’s press conference in hopes of getting some answers. After identifying myself and attempting to ask a question, I was aggressively pushed out of the room, forced to the ground and handcuffed.” Does anyone actually believe that?
My favorite propaganda spin was contributed by the New York Times, which posted a piece with the header: “Padilla’s scuffle stirs painful memories of a childhood spent proving his worth.” Poor Alex.
Unhappily for poor Alex, the complete video shows a different picture, of a man trying to aggressively force his way through a room and refusing to stand down. Here’s a link, so you can see for yourself what really happened:
Democrat Senator Alex Padilla should be ashamed of his childish behavior today.
He crashed the middle of an official press conference being held by a cabinet secretary, recklessly lunged toward the podium where @Sec_Noem was speaking, and then refused to leave the room and… pic.twitter.com/8bECY8ziVd
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 12, 2025
Karoline Leavitt posted this on X: “Democrat Senator Alex Padilla should be ashamed of his childish behavior today.”
I agree; just because you’re an elected official, you still have to play by the rules. (Don’t Democrats tell Trump that all the time?) Democrat Rep LaMonica McIver of NJ learned that lesson the hard way recently when she “forcibly impeded and interfered with federal officers” and was subsequently indicted two days ago by a grand jury for assaulting DHS personnel. Bottom line: no one is above the law, and this administration is not cowed by the mainstream press.
Poor Alex; he won’t even get his 15 minutes, thanks to Bibi Netanyahu taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities. You can’t win them all!
