Recommendations of the Editorial team
US Senator Alex Padilla (Democrat, California) was at a Press conference of the Ministry of Internal Safety by members of the FBI violently dragged out of the room,. Pressed to the ground and tied up. Everything after trying to ask Homeland Protection Minister Kristi Noem.
“I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions to the minister,” said the federal legislature, who represents 40 million Californians. Then several men grabbed his clothes and his upper body. And began to push him out of the room. Padilla told the men that they should “let go of him”. In a video published by Padilla’s office, two FBI agents and an unimaginated man can be seen to the ground and captivate the Senator-who apparently followed her instructions at that time. In the meantime, Noem continued to talk about her intention to “free” Los Angeles from the “socialist” city and state government.
According to his office, Padilla wanted to attend a briefing
According to Padilla’s office, the senator in the federal building was to get a briefing with Air Force General Gregory Guillot, the commander of the US Northern Command. He listened to Minister Noem’s press conference. He tried to ask the minister a question. And was violently removed by federal agents, brought to the ground and tied up. His office said he tried to “meet his duty to control the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and all of California.”
Padilla said at an improvised press conference in front of the building that he was “peaceful there”. And I hoped to receive answers from the government to its immigration policies. Padilla repeated his statements in English and Spanish. “I started asking a question,” he recalled when he was removed from the room. “I was pressed to the ground and tied up,” he said. And made it clear: “I was not arrested. I was not arrested.” Padilla, visibly moved, said to the reporters: “If this is the reaction of this government to the question of a senator, you can only imagine what you do with farmers … and day laborers.”
Reactions of Newsom, Schumer and Schiff
California’s governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the Senator was “one of the most decent people I know. This is outrageous, dictatorial and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. That must stop now.”
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) added that the “rough procedure” against a US senator “made him bad”.
“We need immediate answers to the question of what the hell happened there,” Schumer wrote.
In a speech in the Senate, Padilla’s Californian colleague, the Democrat Adam Schiff, asked the Republicans to condemn the procedure against her colleague.
“The founders separated the powers between executive, legislative and judiciary. Because they wanted to put ambitions against each other. Ambitions of one institution against that of another. To protect our freedom,” said Schiff. “But that requires that we go beyond our party political affiliations. And, if something is wrong – fundamentally wrong – if something is a threat to our democracy that we name it, regardless of the party. And that is wrong.”
DHS justifies the procedure with “security concerns”
In a declaration on social media, the DHS said that Padilla had been touched hard by federal agents because he had “chosen disrespectful political theater and interrupted an ongoing press conference. Without showing himself or wearing his Senate security pin when he stormed on Minister Noem”. The Secret Service thought it was an attacker.
However, a video clearly shows that Padilla never approached Noem. And that he loudly explained that he was a senator. As Senator Chris Murphy told Republican colleagues in the Senate: “Even if you believe that he was disrespectful – which is certainly in the eye of the viewer during this time – it never justifies what we saw on this video. To throw someone to the ground and captivate. Not to mention a chosen representative.”
“You will twist that,” said Murphy. “But I plead my Republican colleagues A.: Don’t let them do it. Protect our ability as a servant of the people to speak for the people we represent.”