‘Censure’: Democrats Wanted Republicans to Speak Up on Padilla. They Have Their Answer
Calif senator was thrown to ground and handcuffed for wanting to ask questions
In the immediate aftermath of Sen Alex Padilla being attacked by federal agents at a Department of Homeland Security press conference, Democrats and others called on Republicans to speak out in defense of the California Democrat.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have to wait long to get their answer.
Padilla stood calmly in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in the Los Angeles, Calif, area, as he identified himself and said that he had questions for the secretary.
This is according to video captured of the entire incident which was released to the public.
Padilla, ranking Democrat on a Senate Homeland Security Committee subcommittee with jurisdiction over Noem’s agency, was immediately forced out of the room, thrown roughly to the ground and handcuffed by men — at least one of whom clearly was wearing a vest marked “FBI.”
A number of Padilla’s Democratic colleagues immediately sprung to his defense.
But they were also looking for bipartisan support from Republicans, as well.
That includes Sen Chris Murphy, of Connecticut.
“They’re going to spin this. But I’m begging my Republican colleagues: Don’t let them do it,” he said. “Protect our ability, as servants of the people, to speak up for the people we represent. Make sure that we don’t normalize this kind of violence.”
And it’s not just Democrats looking towards Republicans for a response.
“Republican senators should be very careful on this right now. If they do not come out and defend Senator Padilla’s right to ask questions of this administration of his colleagues, they are setting an extraordinarily dangerous precedent,” Sarah Longwell, “Never Trump” Republican and publisher of the website The Bulwark, said in an appearance on MSNBC.
None of them had to wait long, however.
By late Thursday afternoon, one of the top Republicans in Washington DC was calling for the censure … of Alex Padilla.
House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed Padilla was somehow to blame for the incident. And called on the Senate to take action against him.
Johnson claimed that Padilla was “charging” Noem. The secretary, however, was at some distance from the senator from the video of the incident.
“But I do think that it merits immediate attention by their colleagues over there, and that they think that behavior, at a minimum, rises to the level of a censure,” said Johnson, a stalwart ally of Donald Trump. “I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that 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,” Johnson said.
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