Congress
Democrats seize on Padilla video as a unifying immigration message
Democrats believe they’ve found a compelling new message on immigration — thanks to a viral image of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) in handcuffs.
Padilla, who was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference about ICE raids in California, earned support from fellow Democrats and triggered outrage over what they see as the administration’s overreach.
“If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X.
It’s a snappier paraphrase of Padilla’s own words: “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question. If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question,” he said at a hastily organized press conference Thursday afternoon. “You can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.”
Immigration has long vexed Democrats, who face an enormous deficit of public trust on the issue, but now they think they’ve found a way forward. Padilla, a mild-mannered first-term senator, has become the embodiment of the new message from Democrats, who are not arguing whether deportations should be carried out but take issue with the reckless way they’re being done. And they’re enraged at the administration’s effort to tamp down on protests, which Democrats say is unlawful and inciting chaos.
“When people talk about rising to the moment in history, it is a sitting U.S. senator putting his body on the line to highlight injustice in our country,” said Kristian Ramos, a Democratic strategist who worked on immigration issues for more than a decade. “It underlines the fact that the Republican Party and Donald Trump do not care about laws in this country.”
On Capitol Hill, Democratic members, led by the Hispanic Caucus, marched to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s offices to demand that Noem testify before Congress about the incident.
Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Wes Moore of Maryland, both of whom are considered presidential contenders in 2028, took to social media to express similar sentiments.
“This is Donald Trump’s America, where they attack our freedoms,” Pritzker wrote. “We cannot be intimidated or scared by their abuses of power.”
Moore added: “The weaponization of our justice system and the normalization of political violence is unacceptable.”
It was a unifying moment around a singular message for the party, which so far has struggled to succinctly push back on Trump.
A number of Democrats quickly used the incident to fundraise, too.
“All Alex was trying to do was ask a question and do his job of oversight,” read one email from the campaign of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who asked supporters to split donations between his campaign and Padilla’s.
“There can be no justification for this,” said a subject line from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
“What happened to Senator Alex Padilla this afternoon is appalling,” read a message from Shenna Bellows, a Democrat running for governor in Maine.
Still, even as Democrats saw a clear opportunity to change the tone on immigration, Republicans cast Democrats as the ones welcoming the chaos.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, sought to cast Padilla as the agitator, saying he was “shoving law enforcement officers” to get his way back to Noem’s attention, adding, “Incredibly aggressive behavior for a sitting U.S. senator.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) accused Padilla of enacting a political stunt, telling reporters Thursday he “got what he wanted, he’s on TV.” Others pointed out Padilla was not wearing his Senate pin, though he verbally identified himself a senator.
Johnson told reporters that “at a minimum” Padilla’s behavior “rises to the level of a censure.”
Other Republicans compared Thursday’s incident to other recent actions from Democrats — including Rep. LaMonica McIver’s recent indictment — as proof the party is out of control.
“Democrat officials and their staffers are growing increasingly radical and extreme,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, in a statement to Blue Light News. “It’s alarming they think they can obstruct federal law enforcement or physically push officers while charging a cabinet secretary without consequence.”
Democrats are banking on the idea that the Padilla incident can change the conversation on LA unrest, even as protests are planned across the country this weekend to coincide with Trump’s planned military parade.
“When the government overreaches like this in such a blatant manner, it allows for us to have a conversation with lots of people who may not be political observers,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, which is organizing the “No Kings” demonstrations Saturday in 1,800 locations nationwide.
Mitchell pointed out that the Trump administration has already detained a Democratic mayor in New Jersey, arrested a judge in Wisconsin and indicted a Democratic congressmember in his effort to intimidate those who question the legality of his immigration actions.
“Think about what they might do to you, if you’re on their shit list,” he said.
Jessica Piper and Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing contributed to this report.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) is jumping into the race to lead House education committee Democrats.
The Oregon Democrat officially declared she will run to be the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee in a Dear Colleague letter sent to members of the Democratic caucus Tuesday and shared with Blue Light News.
Bonamici’s jump into the race marks another challenger for Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the panel’s current ranking member. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) is also running for the panel’s top spot.
Bonamici wrote in the letter that she is “ready to bring a fresh and collaborative approach to invigorate this Committee with a plan to champion the education and labor priorities of our Caucus. With my legal background, I’m prepared to use all of the power of Congress to hold Trump and his cronies, including Secretary Linda McMahon, accountable for the harm they have caused.”
Bonamici introduced a resolution to impeach the Education secretary because of McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the department without the approval of Congress.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after Bonamici told POLITICO last month that she was not ruling out a run for committee leadership and was having conversations about it. Her leadership run now comes as Democrats believe they will win the House majority in November.
The Oregon Democrat, who currently serves as top Democrat on the K-12 subcommittee, said the whole panel “must provide a bold and visionary approach while fighting Trump’s corruption and assault on public education, unions, and working families” if they take the majority.
BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania — Speaker Mike Johnson defended President Donald Trump’s use of taxpayer funded political-themed ads ahead of the election, but he said it was “good” that MAGA Inc. would pay for them going forward.
Johnson said Tuesday that he’s only seen one of the Trump ads and that it “looked like a public service announcement.”
“It was talking about America’s greatness and the economy coming back, and it wasn’t a plea to vote for anybody. It was just — it was pro Americana,” Johnson told Blue Light News during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
But he added: “If the Super PAC’s funding them, that’s good.”
Trump said Monday that he or his aligned super PAC would pay for the series of taxpayer-funded ads featuring him in the final few weeks of the midterms. His decision came after bipartisan backlash, including from some GOP candidates like Brinker Harding in Nebraska’s 2nd District publicly broke with the president and said they shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer money.
Still, asked if Trump should refund taxpayers the money already spent on the ads, Johnson demurred. He said previous Democratic administrations have run PSAs as well, though Democrats argue these ads violate federal laws against using taxpayer money for “publicity or propaganda purposes.”
“Look, they’re making their decisions on funding campaigns and the content of all of it,” Johnson said of the president’s team.
“I’m going to tell you the president is deeply vested,” Johnson added, noting Trump was out on the campaign trail for Republicans.
Johnson spoke alongside Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) during a law enforcement event in the perennial bellwether of Pennsylvania’s 7th District. He called Mackenzie’s race one of the “top three in the country” and warned it would be “enormously expensive.”
He later argued that Democrats, if they win the House majority, would roll back GOP work on the economy and “empower our enemies around the world at the worst possible time.”
“That would roil the markets … if Democrats turned Congress into lawfare on steroids,” Johnson said.
Pennsylvania is the first of seven states that Johnson plans to visit this week as he continues his midterm campaign blitz.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he plans to stay on the court through next year, brushing aside speculation that he could retire early and let President Donald Trump fill his seat after the election but before a new Congress is sworn in next year.
“I intend to stick around through this term,” Alito, 76, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “I made that decision many months ago.”
The Supreme Court began its new term on Monday, which will last through next June.
Alito, the second-oldest justice on the bench, was in the news last week after telling CBS News that he considered retiring this year and will do so again in 2027.
His comments come as the fight over control of the Senate is in a dead heat. Democrats would have to flip at least four seats, but recent polls show several races, including in states Trump carried easily two years ago, remain competitive.
Several Senate Democratic candidates are already running on the prospect of filling a seat on the Supreme Court or, at least, denying Trump’s ability to do so. Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic nominee in 2016, allowing Trump to fill the seat after he came into the White House.
“Our race to decide Ohio’s next Senator could not only determine control of the U.S. Senate, but also who fills a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land,” Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee in Ohio, wrote in a blog post Monday. “Ohio’s next senator could be our first line of defense against another partisan Supreme Court Justice — or rubber stamp a Trump nominee.”
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