House Speaker Mike Johnson attacked Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) for interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference on Thursday.
Padilla identified himself as a U.S. senator and said, "I have a question for the secretary." He was forcibly removed by marked and unmarked FBI agents, shoved face-down on the ground by three officers, and handcuffed.
Johnson characterized the encounter as the senator "charging" Noem.
"We need to be on the side of law and order," said Johnson. "We need to be on the side of calm and not chaos. And when members go into these settings and act this way, when they push law enforcement agents around, when they storm cabinet secretaries in a press conference, I think it is wildly inappropriate behavior. And I think it sets a terrible message and tone for the rest of the country."
When asked if there would be an investigation, Johnson said it was a Senate issue.
"But I certainly hope that behavior is not repeated over here," Johnson said.
A reporter hammered him on why he couldn't take action as the head of Congress.
"The Senate does its disciplinary actions over there, and we do ours over here. We have a certain set of measures, as you all know, and it ranges from censure to removal from committees to ultimately expulsion from the body," Johnson continued, noting it wasn't his decision to censure Padilla.
"But I do think that it merits immediate attention by their colleagues over there, and that they think that behavior, at a minimum, rises to the level of a censure. I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we are going to do. That's not how we're going to act. We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging cabinet secretaries," Johnson said.
Videos of Padilla posted online do not appear to show him "charging" the secretary.
See the clip below or at the link here.