MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace chuckled Thursday afternoon at the idea Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) might say something productive about a brouhaha in which one of his members was thrown out of a news conference and handcuffed despite identifying himself as a senator.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) went to a press conference for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, where he said he had a question. He was shoved by law enforcement out the door, pushed face down on the carpet by three officers, and handcuffed. He wasn't arrested or charged with a crime.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke out about it, saying that he would support a censure for Padilla, characterizing the incident, where he was not present, as "charging" toward Noem.
"I guess I would put Mike Johnson's response that the answer to what happened today in California is, to 'censure Senator Padilla,' in the category of shocking, but not surprising," she said, speaking to never-Trump Republican Charlie Sykes.
"There is some sense that Thune may," Wallace said before laughing. "I don't know, I feel dumb even saying this. There's some hope that Thune may say something less obnoxious and unproductive, but I think that might be a fool's errand. Where is your head on who Senator Thune is in this ... unfurling nightmare?"
Sykes dodged answering what Thune might say, noting only that we'd likely find out what he thinks "soon." Instead, he pivoted back to attack Johnson.
He called the incident with Padilla "shocking."
"It was such a clear red line. You know, it is so fundamentally un-American. And once again, the Congress, at some point, you would hope, you would expect it would stand up for itself," he said.
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