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Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has some questions in the wake of his scuffle at Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s Los Angeles press conference on Thursday.
Padilla was pushed out of the room and then detained after trying to confront Noem about the aggressive uptick in ICE raids currently sweeping across Southern California as she addressed reporters.
And during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he wondered how authorities are treating everyday people if they were willing to manhandle and handcuff a sitting senator in full view of cameras.
“If that’s how they treat a senator trying to ask a question ―” he told Dana Bash. “Then imagine, not what they can do, what they are doing to so many people without titles.”
MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images via Getty Images
While DHS claims Padilla “lunged” at the secretary, none of the footage from the incident appears to show that happening.
During his appearance on “State of the Union,” the senator also shut down DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin’s suggestion that he was trying “to manufacture a viral moment” during Thursday’s event.
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Telling Bash how he was “escorted” into the room by a National Guard member and an FBI agent while already at the federal building for a separate briefing, Padilla said, “It was an opportunity to ask a question and do my job as a senator, do my job as a senator in questioning the cabinet secretary.”
Watch the senator’s full appearance on “State of the Union” here:
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