Padilla Speaks Out on Forced Removal From News Conference

The United States secretary of Homeland Security said that the purpose of federal law enforcement and the purpose of the United States military was to quote, “liberate Los Angeles from our governor and our mayor. To somehow liberate us from the very people that we democratically elected to lead our city and our state. So last week, when I heard something so blatantly un-American from the secretary of Homeland Security, a cabinet official, of course I was compelled, both as a senator and as an American, to speak up. But before I could even get out my question, I was physically and aggressively forced out of the room. Even as I repeatedly announced I was a United States senator, and I had a question for the secretary. And even as the National Guardsmen and the F.B.I. agent who served as my escorts and brought me into that press briefing room, stood by silently, knowing full well who I was.