← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
A
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- [01:03]
B
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- [01:15]
C
Welcome everyone. Adrian Carrasquillo with the Bulwark. Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to dive right in because we have California Senator Alex by the by now, many of us have seen the disgusting video yesterday here he's manhandled by agents, he's escorted out of the room, shoved to the ground, handcuffed and just because he wanted to ask DHS Secretary Noem some questions. So I wanted to start with Senator, how are you doing? I saw that you said your family was worried, your kids were worried because they saw the video. Can you tell us how you're doing?
- [01:48]
B
You know, we're doing all right. We're a pretty resilient bunch. Sadly, it's a reflection of the times that we're living in that, you know, not just as adults, we should be able to have a, you know, policy and political debates and discussions. But with technology being what it is, it doesn't take very long to show up in your kids feeds as they're, you know, playing with their friends. So want to make sure that they're okay. And frankly, it's not Just about my kids. There's a whole lot of people, young people and not so young people, who were shocked by the visuals yesterday and are processing what happened. You know, one of my big takeaways was, okay, I think I'm a pretty tough guy, not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally. But just to think, if this is how the Trump administration is willing to treat a United States senator for the audacity of asking a question, then you have to wonder, what else would they do? Or what else are they doing to people who don't have titles next to their names? When immigration enforcement actions are happening with no cameras around, they. It's just more evidence of the extreme, extreme and aggressive actions of this administration. And we deserve better.
- [03:06]
C
I just wanted to ask you. I saw that you were. You became upset because Noam was talking about the California leaders, Governor Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass in Los Angeles. What precipitated the incident yesterday?
- [03:19]
B
Yeah. So I want to be clear about a couple things, because it's not going to shock you, but there's already lies and misinformation coming from the other side. Right. They said at lunged at the secretary. I did not lunge at the secretary, that I barged into the room. That's not true. I had been there for five, almost 10 minutes maybe, that I didn't identify myself. Like, you saw the video. Right. I'm shouting, I'm Senator Alex Padilla, and I have a question. You know, the shirt that I'm wearing had the Senate seal on the chest. This all took place in the federal building in Los Angeles. I was in the federal building at a sched for a scheduled briefing with representatives of Northern Command to get more information, not just what plans they might be willing to share for National Guard troops, potentially Marines in Los Angeles already a crisis manufactured by Donald Trump, that they kept escalating and escalating against the wishes of the governor and local leaders. When waiting for this briefing, I catch wind that, well, the Secretary Noem just walked by. Oh, there's a press conference literally a couple of doors down. And now my briefing is delayed because of some of the folks that were supposed to be in my briefing are in that press conference. I mentioned. It's a federal building. Right. So upon arrival, even I as a center, go through security screening, as does my staff. There is a National Guards member. There's an FBI agent assigned to escort me. I can't move freely about the building. I have to be escorted. So they're sitting in the conference room with me, waiting when I ask them like, well, if we're waiting, is it possible to go to the press conference and listen in? Maybe, just maybe, we'll hear some information that can be helpful for what I'm trying to do as my job as a senator. They escort me over, they open the door for me, right? I step in. I don't want to be disruptive. So I'm standing behind the reporters, I'm standing behind the cameras, just standing to the side, and I'm hearing the rhetoric being spewed over and over again. And we get to this point, not the first time she says this, but the second time she references the need for the Trump administration to liberate Los Angeles from the governor and from the mayor and blah, blah, blah. And so I took that as a moment to, like, okay, I gotta. I gotta fact check here. I gotta call them on their rhetoric, and I'm gonna pose questions to try to shed light on what's happening. I could barely begin my question when there were multiple agents on me. And again, you've seen the video. Very forcibly removed from the room after I had identified myself, repeatedly said, I just want to ask a question of the secretary. Before I know it, they had me on the ground and then came out the handcuffs.
- [06:04]
C
What do you say to this became such a big national thing yesterday. This, like, gigantic conversation. Even people like Stephen A. Smith are chiming in, and they're saying that you should not have interrupted. You should have waited for your time to speak. What do you say to people to say things like that?
- [06:18]
B
Yeah, look, I've been. I've been asking these questions since January, right? This is an administration. This is a Department of Homeland Security. Even the secretary herself, they've been in committee hearings. They've gotten questions from us in that forum, and they're very evasive. They refuse to share, they refuse to commit. And so another mechanism for members of Congress, particularly in the Senate, to get information in our role of oversight and accountability, is to formalize requests for information through letters. Surprise, surprise, they're just not responding. I mean, minimal, superficial response, if you're lucky. And so here I was in a federal building in Los Angeles, couple doors down from the secretary herself. I thought maybe this is an opportunity to ask a question directly. I'm doing my job, and this is how they react. And again, I can't emphasize enough that, you know, one of my big takeaways is not about me. If they're willing to do this to me, what else are they doing? What else are they capable of doing? What else are they doing? To so many otherwise hardworking nonviolent migrants out and about in Los Angeles and around the country.
- [07:30]
C
And quickly, what happened? Even Corey Lewandowski, the longtime Trump hand, even he was defending you and telling them to let you go.
- [07:37]
B
That, I gotta tell you, was one of the most surreal things that's ever happened in my life. So, you know, not only, you know, down on my knees and I'm laying flat and you get the handcuffs on me and back on my feet, they're walking me down a hall. And just if you were in that situation, probably would be running through your head as well as running through mine. Like, where is this going? Because they're not telling me anything. I asked him repeatedly, why are you detaining me? No answer. Now I'm thinking, where are we going? I doubt this is as simple as they're just escorting me to the exit and to leave the building. Are we going to another office? Are we thinking the same in a cell somewhere? I have no idea what's happening. And a minute later, running down the hall is, of all people, Corey Lewandowski. And you know his history. He's part of DHS right now. He was, you know, part of the first Trump administration. He was campaign manager for the first Trump campaign. He's the one trying to reign into agents, telling him to stop, to release me, to remove the handcuffs, offering me a cup of coffee. Surreal. But that's how I.
- [08:42]
C
Incredible. Two more quick ones for you, Senator. I've been struck and I think it's such an important part of what's happening in LA that, you know, this is not some small red city in a red state in the south, where unfortunately, immigrants do not have allies and they drive to work and they drive home. This is a place where there are half a million people who have mixed status families. This is paramount. Where the Home Depot is 82% Latino. Can you just talk about how when they are attacking day laborers and garment workers, that they are attacking the friends, family and neighbors of the people that you represent. And that's why you're speaking up here.
- [09:14]
B
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, and there's a couple layers to this. First of all, we've been through this before, right? The very reason I left an engineering degree behind and committed myself to public service through, you know, to. To work in politics and government for the better is of Proposition 187 in 1994. A lot of the anti immigrant rhetoric we're hearing nationally now was actually the political climate in California back then. And how did Californians respond How did not just the Latino community and immigrant communities, but by and large, you know, the public in California respond. You had waves of people like my parents, who had been here for decades with no sense of urgency on becoming citizens. They finally taking those steps towards naturalization, not just to protect themselves, but so they can register to vote and participate in our democracy. And you had a whole generation, my generation, I was a little younger at the time, saying, hey, enough is enough. We need to engage. And you see California today, not just a policy leader on healthcare and investing in education and infrastructure, in climate change and reproductive rights, et cetera, but also in how we treat our immigrant community. Because we've grown to be the fourth largest economy in the world. Right. It's not a coincidence. The most populous state in the nation, the most diverse state in the nation, home to more immigrants in any state in the nation, is also the biggest economy of any state in the nation. It's not despite our immigrant community. It's because of our immigrant community and its contributions as workers, as consumers, and as entrepreneurs. And so that's just, I mean, one big message that other states should pay attention to and our country should pay attention to. We should be embracing this, not attacking it, but because immigration, immigrant population is so big, we're so blended, we're so cohesive that there's no such thing as like, oh, it's just the undocumented immigrant over there. No, it's probably a member of your family. Not either immediate family, extended family, somebody in your neighborhood, somebody at work, etc, and so a lot of people in Southern California take it very personal. And you see it in the protest, the size and scale of these demonstrations and the passion of these demonstrations, because we know how cruel it is and how against our interest and our values this all is. So, as the demonstrations will continue, I keep telling people, please keep. Continue to peacefully protest. These are First Amendment rights which we need to defend, our other fundamental rights.
- [11:58]
C
Senator, last one for you. My colleague Lauren and I wrote about Democratic Party at a crossroads on this issue. You have people like the Congressional Black Caucus Chair, Yvette Clark, saying these are impeachable offenses, what the President is doing. You have other members of your party, Senators, saying this is another Trumpian distraction. I wanted to ask you, which one is it? And do you want to see your party continue to fight the way that you did yesterday?
- [12:20]
B
Yeah. No, we have to continue to fight. We have to continue to organize. Again, Trump would love nothing more than for us to stay silent, for us to cower and let him continue to abuse our power. That is not in our DNA. We need to continue to speak up, to stand up and not treat this as normal, because this is not normal.
- [12:41]
C
Senator, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate everybody. Thank you for watching, like and subscribe. We will continue following these issues with this escalation of the ICE operations around the country. Thank you so much.