Last week, Senator Padilla (D-CA) got exactly what he wanted when security tossed him out of a press conference being held by DHS Secretary Noem.
Now, Senator Warren (D-WA) has joined the call for Noem’s resignation.
Last week, Padilla went viral for a video of him being removed from the press conference by federal agents and Noem’s security team.
The scuffle initiated off camera, where you could hear Padilla saying something, and bodies clearly coming together to remove him from the room.
He then announced who he was, but by then, the agents were thinking about nothing but their mission, which was to remove the possible threat from the room.
Padilla could have identified himself to the security team beforehand to make them aware of his intentions, but by all signs, he did not. He could have worn his Senate pin, which would have alerted agents as to who he was, but he chose not to. He was dressed in casual clothes, rushing the podium... in other words, this was a setup.
As Dems expressed outrage over the incident, the White House immediately defended Noem and her security team.
It stated, “Padilla stormed a press conference, without wearing his Senate pin or previously identifying himself to security, yelled, and lunged toward Secretary Noem. Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention.
“Padilla embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature, theater-kid stunt — but it’s telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later added on X, “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 follow the directions of law enforcement officers.”
Senator Warren has now joined the chorus of Democrats who want Noem to resign, stating, "It’s time for Republican Senators to speak up. We need an independent investigation of this. It is also time for Kristi Noem to resign. She needs to resign.”
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin answered the bell on that, responding, "Everything is on camera—Warren is trying to revise history on Senator Padilla’s embarrassing conduct, but Americans can see with their own eyes.
"Senator Padilla entered a high-security federal facility under false pretenses and crashed an invite-only press conference as law enforcement are working around the clock to calm violent riots. There’s no excuse for busting into a press conference and interrupting it. Had Senator Padilla asked for a meeting, Secretary Noem would have happily obliged, which she graciously did for 15 minutes after the press conference."
You guys know me well enough by now that if I thought something needed to be called out here, I would call it out. To me, however, this was nothing more than a political stunt by Padilla, and Noem’s security team did everything by the book. Padilla wanted to make a scene, likely to boost fundraising, and that is exactly what he did here.
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