Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was pushed out of a news conference and handcuffed after barging in to ask questions of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Fox News reporter Alex Rego witnessed Padilla being removed and confirmed that he was forced to the ground and that FBI agents handcuffed him. He was then "escorted down the hall and temporarily detained," Fox's Chad Pergram posted on X.
A screen capture of a video taken by NBC's Jacob Soboroff shows three FBI officers holding him down while handcuffing him. Padilla held up his hands and complied with the officers' demands, the video showed.
Legal analyst Lisa Rubin responded to the video, calling it "a big escalation of what has been happening in California."
Speaking on MSNBC following the incident, Rubin noted, "Sen. Padilla, is a son of California."
"He grew up in [the] Pacoima [neighborhood], in Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, where I'm also from. Pacoima is a heavily Latino community. Sen. Padilla was born to immigrants. He himself is the pride of much of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area. To see him manhandled in this way, like a common, everyday protester, is going to be particularly jarring for many who are watching from California, where he is the senior senator."
See the clip below or at the link here.
- YouTube youtu.be
