'Be very careful': Republican Senators get stern warning from one of their own

A longtime Republican political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark is issuing a warning to the senators in her party that they need to be careful where they stand on their colleague, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), being manhandled and handcuffed at a news conference when he tried to ask a question.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed in an official statement from the DHS X account that Padilla didn't identify himself as a Senator at the event. She repeated the comment when speaking to Fox News about it later.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said of Noem, "she rose, you know, like a like a firework, if you will, in veepstakes and then seemed to sabotage her own chances when she wrote in her own words, her own telling of her experience murdering her own dog by shooting her own description of frisky puppy in the face."

"This is someone for whom sadistic conduct, toward animals at least, was part of her brand," Wallace added, before asking, "How do you think she's writing this out in terms of the manner in which she went on Fox News, seeming confident that no one would check her facts?"

Sarah Longwell encouraged her fellow Republicans to think before they act.

"Republican senators should be very careful on this right now," she said. "If they do not come out and defend Senator Padilla's right to ask questions of this administration, of his colleagues, they are setting an extraordinarily dangerous precedent for how senators are going to be treated in this country. They should protect their own institution. They should have an interest in their office being protected from this kind of behavior."

She said at some point, they're all going to have questions they want answered, and it should be protected.

Longwell began the conversation by noting that the statement from Homeland Security claims Padilla was doing "performative theater." It's "interesting," she said, "because nobody has done more cosplaying. You know, she's constantly dressing herself up like federal agents. She's constantly putting detainees behind her for photo-ops, which is some of the grossest behavior I've ever seen out of a public official."

Longwell said that "the lies that Republicans are telling" endanger the support among the tech world, which believed Donald Trump would be the free speech president.

"We have to have free speech in this country. Well, a sitting senator should be able to ask a question of the head of the Department of Homeland Security," said Longwell. "And in fact, I find it odd that Kristi Noem wouldn't recognize Senator Alex Padilla. I mean, he is the ranking member, I believe, on one of the immigration committees. So, the idea that she absolutely doesn't know who he is is absurd."

Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety.

She went on to say that "this is not singular," as Trump was already threatening to use violence against anyone who protests his birthday parade will be "met with incredible force."

"This is not one off," Longwell warned. "This is about how this entire administration is approaching people who dissent. And, so, nobody better come here and try to tell me this is a free speech president or a free speech administration. Her reasoning for the treatment of Sen. Alex Padilla is that he was disrespectful. Being disrespectful is not a reason to handcuff somebody on the ground. It's just not."

See the clip below or at the link here.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com