{"id":10228,"date":"2025-06-12T19:31:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/alex-padilla-confrontation-in-la-shocks-senators\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T19:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:31:44","slug":"alex-padilla-confrontation-in-la-shocks-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/alex-padilla-confrontation-in-la-shocks-senators\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Padilla confrontation in LA shocks senators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senators were left stunned Thursday by video of their colleague Alex Padilla getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/06\/12\/california-sen-alex-padilla-handcuffed-at-noem-presser-00403253\" target=\"_blank\">manhandled and handcuffed<\/a> in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>The California Democrat was attempting to enter a news conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he was physically confronted by law enforcement, forced out of the room and handcuffed on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m Senator Alex Padilla,\u201d he said as it happened. \u201cI have questions for the secretary.\u201d His office put out a statement saying he is \u201cnot currently detained.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Padilla\u2019s fellow Democrats responded with shock and dismay as they left the Capitol after taking the week&#8217;s final votes Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it \u201csickened my stomach &#8212; the manhandling of a United States Senator.\u201d Padilla\u2019s California colleague Adam Schiff called for an immediate investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Several other Democrats were dropping the word \u201cfascism\u201d in conversations as they made their way out of the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s looking more and more like a fascist state out there every day,\u201d said Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, while a visibly upset Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said, \u201cWe\u2019re watching the end of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some Republican senators also expressed concern. \u201cIt\u2019s horrible,\u201d said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. \u201cIt is shocking at every level. It\u2019s not the America I know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wanted to \u201cget the facts and find out exactly what happened before we make any comments about it.\u201d But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) scoffed that Padilla \u201cgot what he wanted, he\u2019s on TV,\u201d while Majority Whip John Barrasso had this observation: \u201cWhy isn\u2019t he here in Washington voting?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu and Jennifer Scholtes contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senators were left stunned Thursday by video of their colleague Alex Padilla getting manhandled and handcuffed in Los Angeles. The California Democrat was attempting to enter a news conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he was physically confronted by law enforcement, forced out of the room and handcuffed on the floor. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}