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This is an adapted excerpt from the June 12 episode of “Deadline: White House.”
On Thursday, Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles. The Democrat was pushed to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents. The scene was appalling. The thugification of the Trump administration is not a new phenomenon, but it has rarely been so graphically on display.
What happened to Padilla was shocking, but what has been far more shocking and more ominous has been the response.
It was certainly possible that there was a misunderstanding and that the FBI agents accompanying Noem simply didn’t know who the senator was. In a normal universe, those agents and Noem would admit they got it wrong and apologize.
They are trying to desensitize us, they are trying to numb us, and they are trying to normalize these kinds of abuses.
But they didn’t. Because, in this administration, not only do they never apologize, they continually escalate. Noem said Padilla was lunging forward and did not identify himself during the news conference — video of the incident shows Padilla did, indeed, state he was a U.S. senator. Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino defended his agents, writing on X that they “acted completely appropriately.” Bongino also said he was “grateful for their professionalism and service.”
Then there’s House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said Padilla should be censured. “I think that that behavior at a minimum ... rises to the level of a censure,” Johnson told reporters on Thursday. “I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we’re going to do, that’s not how we’re going to act.”
The fact that they are embracing and celebrating this shocking episode and making Padilla appear like the one who took things too far tells you the direction that we’re heading. They are trying to desensitize us, they are trying to numb us, and they are trying to normalize these kinds of abuses.
Remember, this is an administration that not only threatened to arrest a sitting Democratic governor but has already arrested a state judge and a Democratic mayor.
After Thursday’s incident, Padilla stressed an important point: If this is how the administration treats a sitting United States senator, how will they treat the average citizen?