BREAKING: Sen. Padilla Thrown to Floor, HANDCUFFED at Kristi Noem Presser

Summary

Bulwark Takes Episode Summary: "BREAKING: Sen. Padilla Thrown to Floor, HANDCUFFED at Kristi Noem Presser"

Release Date: June 12, 2025
Host: The Bulwark Team (Sam Stein and Tim Miller)
Episode Title: BREAKING: Sen. Padilla Thrown to Floor, HANDCUFFED at Kristi Noem Presser

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Bulwark Takes, hosts Sam Stein and Tim Miller delve into a startling incident involving U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California. The episode, released on June 12, 2025, explores the unprecedented event where Senator Padilla was physically detained and handcuffed during a press conference featuring DHS Secretary Christine Ome. This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and reactions surrounding the event.

The Incident Unfolded

At the heart of the episode is the shocking footage captured during a press conference held by DHS Secretary Christine Ome. Senator Padilla attempted to question the Secretary about the deportation practices and the handling of violent criminals by DHS agents. The situation escalated rapidly, resulting in Padilla being forcibly removed from the premises.

Notable Moments from the Incident

• Senator Padilla's Confrontation ([02:06] - [02:38]):
  "I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary. Because the fact of the Matter is a half a dozen violent criminals that you're rotating on your [02:06]."
  Padilla's persistent questioning about DHS's deportation tactics led to heightened tensions.

• Physical Detention ([02:31] - [03:06]):
  "Hands behind your back. Hands behind your back."
  Federal agents swiftly restrained Padilla, prompting concern over the treatment of a sitting U.S. Senator.

Hosts' Analysis and Reactions

Sam Stein and Tim Miller express deep concern over the aggressive handling of Senator Padilla, highlighting potential violations of constitutional rights and democratic norms.

Tim Miller's Perspective

Tim emphasizes the breach of protocol and democratic principles:

"This is a free country. And he's identifying himself. I'm Senator Alex Padilla... to have this combination of... being pushed out into the hallway, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed... that is not an exaggeration to say that is the behavior of an authority of an aspiring authoritarian regime."
— Tim Miller ([04:24])

He further critiques the administration's pattern of using authoritarian tactics to suppress legitimate criticism, referencing other incidents where officials were targeted for their actions or statements.

Sam Stein's Insights

Sam underscores the severity of the incident and its implications for First Amendment rights:

"It's unreal. It kind of leaves you a little bit speechless. It gives truth to the lie that these people care about the First Amendment."
— Sam Stein ([06:05])

He draws parallels to past confrontations, illustrating a growing trend of overreaching governmental authority.

Political Reactions

The episode highlights reactions from prominent political figures in response to Padilla's detention.

Chuck Schumer's Denouncement

Chuck Schumer publicly denounces the incident:

"Mr. President. I just saw something that sickened my stomach. The manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on."
— Chuck Schumer ([07:16])

Lisa Murkowski's Statement

Lisa Murkowski remarks on the changing state of America:

"It's not the America I know, maybe, but it is the America we have."
— Lisa Murkowski ([08:31])

Tim Miller adds poignantly:

"It's the America we're becoming."
— Tim Miller ([08:33])

Broader Implications and Patterns

The hosts discuss a concerning pattern of behavior by the current administration, suggesting an emerging authoritarian stance marked by:

• Racial Profiling:
  Tim points out the administration's focus on targeting Hispanic workers, indicating a systemic bias in deportation practices.

• Suppression of Dissent:
  References to Kash Patel's actions against critics and Andrew Weissman's comments suggest a broader strategy to silence opposition.

Pushback from the MAGA Side

The episode explores the responses from MAGA supporters and political figures who defend the administration's actions, albeit with questionable justification.

"No one is above the law. It's about time these Democrats stop acting like they are."
— Charlie Kirk ([10:07])

Tim challenges Kirk’s stance by questioning the specific laws violated by Padilla’s actions, highlighting the absence of clear legal grounds for the senator's detention.

DHS Spokesperson's Statement

A statement from DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin is scrutinized by the hosts, who find inconsistencies between the official narrative and the available footage.

"Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having a Senate security pin on."
— Trisha McLaughlin ([13:03])

Tim and Sam counter these claims by referencing the video evidence showing Padilla identifying himself as a U.S. Senator and persistently attempting to ask questions.

Conclusion and Ongoing Developments

Sam Stein notes the dynamic nature of the situation, indicating that updates are forthcoming as more information becomes available. The hosts reaffirm their commitment to covering the story, anticipating further developments and public reactions.

"It's madness. Well, we'll see where this ends up. I mean it's going to be a very live, live story."
— Sam Stein ([15:11])

Final Thoughts

This episode of Bulwark Takes sheds light on a troubling incident that raises significant concerns about governmental overreach and the erosion of democratic freedoms. Through incisive analysis and thorough discussion, Sam Stein and Tim Miller provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the events and their potential ramifications for American politics and civil liberties.

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Note: This summary is based on the transcript provided and reflects the discussions and viewpoints expressed by the hosts during the episode.

Transcript

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[Tim Miller]

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[Sam Stein]

Hey guys, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bulwark and I'm here with Tim Miller. We have some really breaking news. About 30 minutes ago, Senator Alex Padilla of California was physically detained, pushed onto the ground and arrested at a press conference featuring DHS Secretary Christine Ome. His crime, I'm putting it in quotes and I'll get to that in a little bit. Was he had the temerity to be disruptive and ask her a question and push her on some of the stuff that she's been saying out there about the people they're deporting. This footage is ridiculous and outrageous. Tim, do you want to go first or should we play the footage?

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, no, let's play the footage then. I'll get it on the back.

[Sam Stein]

Okay. Here's the footage. This is from Padilla's office. You can see it's shot by an aide to the senator.

[Alex Padilla]

Sir, Sir. Hands up. Hands up. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary. Because the fact of the Matter is a half a dozen violent criminals that you're rotating on your.

[Richard Karn]

I also wanted to.

[Tim Miller]

How many of our ICE agents have been docked.

[Unknown]

On the ground.

[Tim Miller]

On the ground. Hands behind your back. Hands behind your back.

[Alex Padilla]

Behind my back.

[Tim Miller]

All right, cool hand. Lay flat. Lay flat. Other hand, sir. Other hand.

[Unknown]

There's no recording loud out here.

[Tim Miller]

I did not know. There's no recording allowed out here per FBI rights.

[Unknown]

For what?

[Tim Miller]

I'm sorry. There's no recording. That's my boss. I have to. There's no recording. There's no recording.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, there you have it. US Senator pushed to the ground, handcuffed, treated like, you know, a trespasser on a. At a federal building.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. Unclear what he did also. Right. Like, this is a press conference. They're in a federal building. The department. The Secretary of Homeland Security, is having a press conference where she's ostensibly there to take questions from the gathered media. I've been to plenty of press conferences such as this. I've been a PR flack that wrangles people at press conferences. This is not like a private event by nature. It's a public event. You're inviting the cameras in. You're asking to make a point. This is a sender, Right. Of course. If a random person on the street came in and started screaming and shouting and trying to charge the sender, there are moments where you could be too disruptive. But you can see in that video that this is a sitting US Senator that comes in, is trying to ask a question, you know, and maybe out of order. Right. Maybe he wasn't called upon. But still, in a free country, I believe that is still legal. I believe that you're allowed to ask questions of our elected officials without, you know, without being thrown to the ground and. And by jackbooted thugs. And that's what happens in this video. I mean, I was pretty alarmed when I saw the first 20 seconds of it. That just pushed him out into the hallway.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Tim Miller]

Again, this is a free country. And he's identifying himself. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. Throughout the video. And to have this combination of. It looks like FBI officials, Gnome security, dhs. Take him out into the hallway, throw him down onto the ground, and handcuff him. He was not presenting any threat. He was not presenting any physical threat. He said that he was a U.S. senator. And this is just. When you combine it with what we've seen from this DHS with the masked agents going around California is probably one of the things video is going to ask about. There have been tons of Examples now a video we're seeing of mass agents going up to people demanding they have papers, racially profiling them, bullying them if they do not have papers, pushing them around without presenting any identification. You know, when you combine that type of behavior with the. Combine what I talked about with Andrew Weissman about how Kash Patel is now suing critics of him. They're trying to bully critics. This is an administration that is across the board, you know, trying to use authoritarian thug tactics to silence legitimate criticism. And like that is. It is not an exaggeration to say that is the behavior of an authority of an aspiring authoritarian regime. Like the fundamental right of America in the number one amendment in the Constitution. So people have a right to express themselves. Certainly if anyone has a right to express themselves, it would be a United States senator at an open press conference who's concerned about how his constituents are being treated by an unelected federal official. In Christie, now a federal building.

[Sam Stein]

He's a United States senator. It's unreal. It kind of leaves you a little bit speechless. It gives truth to the lie that these people care about the First Amendment. No, it's, you know, I was kind of reminded of this. For people who are out there being like, oh, well, he deserves it. This is small little anecdote, but early on during the Doge Cut days, a number of Democratic lawmakers showed up at the Department of Education and they held a press conference outside the Department of Education to talk about the Doge cuts. And what happened. Linda McMahon showed up and crashed their press conference. Okay. And that just happens. It's, it was, it was clever. But she exercised her free speech. People moved on.

[Tim Miller]

Goes back to the old days when I was campaigning against Mitt Romney in a primary when I was on John McCain's side, we were trying to hit him for being a flip flopper. We sent a dolphin to his press conference who was making dolphin noises and shouting at him during the press conference. You don't get arrested. That is again, that democracy, a country that is democratic, that has free speech, it is messy. Sometimes you have to deal with people who are offering counter views to you when, when you're speaking, when you're speaking in public. And the idea that this, that he should be physically assaulted, handcuffed and handcuffed.

[Sam Stein]

Right. It's crazy. Now I'll again, this is a dynamic situation. I'm speaking right now, almost 3pm so just keep that in mind when you're listening to this. Padilla's office has put out a statement saying that he is no longer in custody. He's currently. He's not currently detained. The office says we are working to get additional information. They say, quote, senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform congressional oversight of the federal government's operations in Los Angeles and across California. He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guot and was listening to Secretary Noam's press conference. He tried to ask the secretary question, was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. Chuck Schumer went on the floor to denounce this. We can play that video now. Mr. President. I just saw something that sickened my stomach. The manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on. I yield the floor. And then on top of that, we have Lisa Murkowski, among others, saying she found. This is Republicans saying she found the footage shocking. Quote, it's not the America I know, maybe, but it is the America we have.

[Tim Miller]

It's the America we're becoming.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, right.

[Tim Miller]

And you get in this point, right? Like, the pushback to this. There are a couple of pushbacks I want to talk about from the MAGA side and ranging in various degrees of bad faith, but one of them is that, like, look, people voted for this. People voted for this type of immigration enforcement. And, you know, so that. So this is what they're going to get, mass deportations. And if you just even try to take that at face level, at face value. Well, yeah, but, you know, people in California also voted for Alex Padilla. They voted for Gavin Newsom. They voted for Karen Bass. Right. And so these elected officials also have the not only right, but duty to represent the constituents that elected them. And the idea that they can be silenced, bullied, pushed around, that the government can go over Gavin Newsom's head and federalize the California National Guard based on nonsense, and then. And then physically push the senator to the ground, go around the request of the mayor, like, that is not the democratic process. Sorry, you can't just say, oh, Americans voted for this. No, not true. Actually, Americans did not vote for this.

[Sam Stein]

Let me just point. Let me just quickly point out. It's not just Padilla. They brought charges against a sitting member of Congress for interrupting, you know, ICE operations in New Jersey. They went after a mayor, sitting mayor. I mean, that's. Any one of these would be insane. And they are insane, but taken together, you having a real pattern here.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. And they went. And again, just to show the ridiculousness of this, all of Them during their testimony in front of Congress, Noem Patel, et cetera, all talking about the politicization of the government that happened under Biden, how they were going to depoliticize and like, here we go. Going way beyond anything that was ever even imaginable during the Biden years. Then you have others who are basically for this. Charlie Kirk tweeted, no one is above the law. It's about time these Democrats stop acting like they are.

[Sam Stein]

What law did he break?

[Tim Miller]

I asked exactly that very question to Charlie Kirk. He has not replied yet. Some people are replying with, he was creating a disturbance. Disorderly conduct.

[Sam Stein]

Disorderly fucking conduct.

[Tim Miller]

Disorderly conduct.

[Sam Stein]

Snowflakes. Snowflake shit, yeah.

[Tim Miller]

What a bunch of snowflakes. We're going to arrest someone now for a senator.

[Sam Stein]

Let's arrest him.

[Tim Miller]

Criticizing for shouting a question at the DHS Secretary, of all people, Charlie Kirk, who's like group Turning Point usa. Like, they do this stuff all the time, like go after Democratic politicians and, and troll them and shout them down. Like trolling is now going to be illegal in this country. You point you were sending me a couple of other spokespeople that are going even further.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, this one really was crazy. But Jeremy Redfern, who is, he used to be spokesman for DeSantis. Now he's a spokesman for the Attorney General of Florida, hinting that he thinks Padilla should be deported. Padilla's from the Valley, man. He's not, he's not a foreigner. I don't know what the hell that's talking about, but it's, it's grotesque. Just because he's got a Hispanic last name, he's suggesting he should be deported. I mean, what the hell's that?

[Tim Miller]

I mean, I hope this is a wake up call to all, you know, I mean, Donald Trump improved a lot with Latino voters. And I'm not out here saying that this is deserved or anything. Obviously it's not. But like, everyone should just be aware of what's happening. Like, it should be blunt about it. There is a racial profiling campaign that's happening from this administration that they're doing unapologetically and they're going to. They're specifically targeting workplaces in Los Angeles for deportation where there are a lot of Hispanic workers. And the rhetoric coming from the administration about, you know, about who is, you know, who they're going for and who, you know, they think might be a suspect. And it is all. And there are other non Hispanics that are getting sucked up in the dragnet, but the racial profiling element from this, from the top all the way down to now, spokespeople for Republican political officials is just blatant.

[Sam Stein]

It's crazy. The flip side of this is, and I'm not trying to politicize it, but, you know, Democrats have been looking for confrontation is one way to put it. But someone to just get up and say, enough's enough. I need answers to these questions. I don't think they anticipated a sitting U.S. senator getting handcuffed as part of this. But you can see, I mean, you could feel it tangibly, like the frustration and the anger and the emotion that is percolating now among Democrats over this specifically, but more broadly, what's happening in California, it is. It's like you watch something actually take hold. I'm seeing it right in front of me.

[Tim Miller]

No, Democratic voters want it and they should. We all people that oppose what this administration should is doing.

[Sam Stein]

It's righteous.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, it is righteous. And so like extreme circumstances call for extreme countermeasures. So this isn't a call to be clownish and to try to show off, to get attention for yourself. It's not that. It's just like there is a lot to be outraged about right now. If you were a senator again representing California and your constituents are being targeted and molested unfairly by this administration by masked thugs, you have a right to get your questions answered and doing so in a manner that's not just, oh, well, I put out a press release and the gentle lady from South Dakota, I hope that you would consider, if they're going to act like fucking thugs, then they need to be confronted. And so good on Alex Padilla for doing it.

[Sam Stein]

All right, I'm going to read you a statement that was issued by Trisha McLaughlin. She is.

[Tim Miller]

I know Trisha.

[Sam Stein]

DHS spokesperson. She tweets this. Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having a Senate security pin on. As he lunged towards Secretary Noem, Mr. Ber was told repeatedly to back away and not comply with the officer's repeated commands. Secret Service thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately. Senator Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting. First of all, I mean, we can see the video. Like, what is she, Was she crazy? We can see the video. He says, I'm a United States Senator. I'm a United.

[Alex Padilla]

He says it, I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary.

[Sam Stein]

Like, what is she talking about? We can all see the video.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. He says it over and over again. This idea that and like I hate the, the whole, the other thing. The maga, Snowflake. He was disrespectful. Disrespectful. Like oh, they care so much about being respectful. Like that is a, that is the high. Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Gotta uphold the norms.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. It's like they've got to be, they need to be respected and because you know, the whole thing is such phony baloney.

[Sam Stein]

Also did not comply with the officers. Repeat, he was out in the hallway. He was on the hallway when they pushed him to the ground and cuffed him. What is she talking about?

[Tim Miller]

He did comply with the request. Like he was. They said to get down on the ground. He was down on the ground.

[Sam Stein]

It's like these, these statements. They ask you not to like believe what you see with your own eyes. It's madness. Well, we'll see where this ends up. I mean it's going to be a very live, live story. I'm sure we're going to be talking about a lot more. We want to get a you quick cut video on the news. I'm sure Tim and I will be back talking about it a little. But thank you for subscribing to the feed. Definitely tell your friends about the feed because we do quickening videos like this. We'll talk to you later.

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