Padilla pushes back against Noem's claim he barged into news conference
California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla has continued to defend himself and refute claims by the Trump administration that he "crashed" Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference before federal officers shoved him outside the room, pushed him to the floor and handcuffed him.
Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, provided more details about the incident Thursday night during an interview on MSNBC -- in which he said he was not a threat and had merely raised his voice to ask a question.
The senator claimed he did not barge into the news conference, as alleged by Noem, but rather he was in the federal building for an approved scheduled briefing with representatives of the Northern Command. He said that meeting was delayed by Noem's news conference in a nearby room, where she was discussing the administration's use of the National Guard to respond to protests over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Padilla said he decided to go to listen to Noem's news conference and asked the National Guard member and FBI agent escorting with him if he could go.
"We're, the whole time, being escorted in this federal building by somebody from the National Guard, somebody from the FBI. I've gone through screening. This is a federal building. And so, I tell them, 'Let's go listen to the press conference.' They escort me over to that room," Padilla told MSNBC.
"The folks that were escorting me in the building walked me over. I didn't even open the door. The door was opened for me. And I spent a few minutes in the back of the room just listening in until the rhetoric, the political rhetoric got to be too much to take. So, I spoke up," he later added.
During her news conference, Noem claimed she was going to "liberate" Los Angeles "from the socialists and the burdensome leadership this governor and mayor have placed on this country and this city."
Padilla told MSNBC that he felt he needed to speak out, said he introduced himself and started asking a question before the officers pushed him out of the room as news cameras, reporters and onlookers recorded the incident.
Noem said law enforcement reacted as they did because Padilla came toward her without identifying himself. She told Fox News Thursday that no one knew who he was and that he was "lunging forward."
Video of the incident captures Padilla identifying himself and saying he wanted to ask a question as he is pushed out of the room; it's not clear from the video if he identified himself before that point, including as he came forward toward the podium. Padilla was wearing a navy blue polo shirt with a small U.S. Senate logo, but it was covered under a navy blue jacket. He said he was not wearing a U.S. Senate security pin at the time of the incident.
After he was quickly released, he and Noem had a private conversation for "10-15 minutes" after the incident, according to both the senator and the secretary.
Noem said that Padilla will likely not be charged.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said Padilla should be "ashamed of his childish behavior."
"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 follow the directions of law enforcement officers," Leavitt posted to X.
Outraged Democratic senators quickly came to Padilla's defense Thursday, claiming Noem and the officers mistreated the senator.
"This is an administration that has no respect for our democracy, for our institutions, for the separation of powers, for a co-equal branch of government," California Sen. Adam Schiff said.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters, "I've seen that one clip. It is horrible. It is shocking at every level. It's not the America I know."
House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans chastised Padilla, with Johnson going so far as saying censure might be needed. A vote to censure does not hold any power beyond a public condemnation of the member's behavior and it does not deny the member privileges.
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday evening that he had spoken with Padilla and the Senate Sergeant At Arms and had attempted to reach Noem in an effort to gather the facts.
"We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do in any incident like this involving a senator, that is, try to gather all of the relevant information," he said.
When asked if he thought what occurred was appropriate based on what he had so far seen, Thune said, "That's all I've got to say."
