Senator Padilla Forcibly Removed After Confronting Noem

“Sir, sir.” “Hands up. Hands up. “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that should —” “On the ground. Hands behind your back. Hands behind your back.” “If you let me — “All right. Cool — lay flat, lay flat.” “Other hand, sir. Other hand.” “I was there peacefully. At one point, I had a question. And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground and I was handcuffed.” “We had a great conversation.” “We’re all set up over there.” “Well, we will give you a few comments.” “Yeah let’s go.” “I know the Senator — we had a great conversation. Sat down and talked for 10, 15 minutes about operations in L.A., some activities of the Department of Homeland Security. And so I thought it was very productive. And I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself, and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk. I’ll let the law enforcement speak to how this situation was handled, but I will say that its — people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people that are doing press conferences.”