Doing The Same Thing Over And Over
Exactly why Padilla suddenly left Washington Wednesday night -- he was at the annual congressional baseball game but apparently left early -- to turn up at Secretary Noem's press conference yesterday morning in Los Angeles isn't clear.
According to the New York Post,Who paid for @AlexPadilla4CA’s private air travel to CA today?
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) June 12, 2025
How was he in California today if he was at the Congressional baseball game last night?
It’s pretty obvious he took a Private Jet.
Who paid for it? Whose plane? https://t.co/160Cb4Afus
Padilla left Washington earlier in the week to be in LA during the riots. The senator was supposed to start at first base for the Democrats in the Congressional Baseball Game on Wednesday night.
It does sound like this was an abrupt change of plan. The semi-official story appears to be that Padilla was in the Westwood federal building in LA
waiting for a scheduled briefing with federal officials and the head of U.S Northern Command, General Gregory Guillot, when he went to listen to Noem's speech. He explained that he was trying to get information about DHS's immigration enforcement actions around the L.A. area and the state.
At that point, he apparently heard about a press conference being held in the building by Secretary Noem. At the link,
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Los Angeles Thursday morning providing an update on immigration operations and protests in the area, when she was interrupted by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who was then forcibly removed from the room.
Noem was describing what she called the "burdensome leadership" of California's governor and the mayor of Los Angeles, when Padilla interrupted and attempted to ask a question before being pushed from the room. He could be heard yelling, "I'm Sen. Alex Padilla and I have questions for the secretary," as he was escorted out of the room.
The full sequence of the episode begins at 7:40 in the video below: As Secretary Noem is speaking, there's a commotion to the rear and right of the camera, which belatedly swings to catch the scene. Padilla is making muffled shouts as agents -- variously referred to as FBI or Secret Service -- surround him saying, "Sir! Sir!". As he's being hustled out of the room, he identifies himself as Sen Alex Padilla, but only after the agents have responded. Every indication seems to be that Padilla rushed the podium before he identified himself:
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “Padilla stormed a press conference, without wearing his Senate pin or previously identifying himself to security, yelled, and lunged toward Secretary Noem.”
The video of the incident does not appear to show Padilla wearing the pin that identifies senators, but it also does not include images of him lunging at Noem. Moreover, he clearly does inform the agents who swarm him that he is a senator. The White House’s argument is that he did not do so early enough in the encounter.
Jackson added, “Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention.”
The official X account of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also contended that Padilla had “interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself” and had “lunged” at Noem.
The DHS also alleged that Padilla was “told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands.”
This clip from CNN gives a law enforcement analysis of the episode:There will likely be repercussions in the Senate. Although House Speaker Johnson made clear that he doesn't speak for the Senate, he did say,Even CNN's legal expert shames @kasie with the facts about @SenAlexPadilla's unhinged actions during the press conference.
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) June 12, 2025
"At that point [Padilla] is going to now be escorted out. You can't interrupt something like that that's already in progress without those consequences." pic.twitter.com/bjDlXeC1Gu
I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that this is not what we are going to do. That's not how we're going to act. We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging Cabinet secretaries. We have got to do better. And I hope that we will.
On the Senate side,
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, said he has spoken to Padilla and is working to "gather all the relevant information" after the Democrat was forcibly removed from Noem's press conference.
Thune said he has also spoken with Senate Sergeant at Arms Jennifer Hemingway, who is in charge of senators' security, and is trying to reach Noem but has not yet spoken with her.
"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.
It's hard to avoid thinking that this incident was planned and scripted following the original template of the May 9 confrontation between ICE and Democrat politicians in Newark, NJ. One questipn that I've seen raised is that Padilla had to have worn his Senate pin to be able to enter the Westwood federal building, but apparently removed it before rushing Noem's press conference. This strongly suggests planning, not a spontaneous reaction.The overall problem I see is that the Newark paradigm hasn't been successful for the Democrats so far; the immigration issue has polled the best of any for Trump, and angry confrontations have so far been self-defeating; Rep Lamonica McIver has been indicted for her role in the Newark confrontation. The planning for the LA episode seems to have been last-minute and desperate.
But it's also likely that Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has taken this episode out of the headlines.
