WASHINGTON (AP) — When videos first rocketed around the internet Thursday afternoon showing security officers forcibly removing Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla from a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in California, senators in both parties were already gathered together for a long series of votes.
There are strict rules against using cellphones on the Senate floor. But senators immediately shared the video with each other anyway.
“I showed it to as many people as I could,” said Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware. That included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who she said seemed “as shocked as we were.”
The videos, which showed officers aggressively pushing Padilla out of Noem’s news conference and eventually restraining him on the floor outside the room, shook Senate Democrats to the core.
Beaten down politically for months as President Donald Trump has returned to power and ruled Washington with a united Republican Congress, the Democrats’ anger exploded as they skipped their traditional Thursday flights home and stayed on the floor to speak out against the episode, calling it the latest and most inflammatory example of what they say is Trump’s gradual assault on democracy.
The altercation came just days after U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention center in New Jersey.
“What was really hard for me to see was that a member of this body was driven to his knees and made to kneel before authorities,” said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, his raised voice booming through the Senate chamber walls. “This is a test. This is a crossroads. This is a day in which the character of this body will be defined.”
Washington Sen. Patty Murray said it was the closest she had come to tearing up on the floor in her 32 years in the Senate. Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she was so angry she was shaking. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine waved around a pocket Constitution and said the administration is trying to make Padilla and others “afraid to exercise their rights.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw “sickened my stomach” and demanded immediate answers “to what the hell went on.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation.
“This is what a dictatorship looks like,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen. “We have to stand up.”
Pleading for Republicans to speak out, New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim said that “this is not a time to put your finger up in the air and figure out which way the wind is blowing, to try to think through what type of reaction might come from the White House if we speak out against this.”
Thune said Thursday evening that he had spoken to Padilla and the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who is in charge of senators’ security. He said he was also trying to reach out to Noem.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do in any incident like this involving a senator and try to gather all the relevant information,” Thune said.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she had seen a clip of the video on the Senate floor and it was “disturbing,” though she said she didn’t know the details of what came before it.
“It looks like he’s being manhandled and physically removed, and it’s hard to imagine a justification for that,” Collins said.
Other Republicans were less sympathetic. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican, raised his voice when asked about the altercation and said that Padilla should have been at work in Washington. He said he had not watched the video.
“Was he being disruptive?” asked South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who also had not seen the video. “He got what he wanted, he’s on video.”
Padilla was forcibly removed from the news conference after introducing himself and saying he had questions for Secretary Noem amid . Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem’s security detail grabbing the California senator by his jacket and shoving him from the room as he yells, “Hands off!” Later video shows Padilla on his knees and pushed to the ground with several officers on top of him.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live news conference.” They defended the officers’ conduct and claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself and said Secret Service believed him to be an attacker.
The Democrats described Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, as a “kind and gentle person” and said that disrespect is not a crime in the United States. They also invoked the end of Trump’s last presidency, when a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol and sent them running.
“I have never, ever — other than January 6 — been so outraged at the conduct of an administration,” said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz.
