WASHINGTON – Democrats want Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to testify on Capitol Hill about the manhandling of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and other House Democrats asked House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) in a letter Friday “to demand sworn testimony” from Noem, by subpoena if necessary, about the “violent detention” of Padilla.
Federal law enforcement officials forcibly removed Padilla from a Noem press conference in a federal building in Los Angeles on Thursday, with video showing agents pushing him to the floor and handcuffing him after he tried to interrupt Noem’s remarks with a question.
The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the incident that Secret Service agents “thought he was an attacker” and acted appropriately in response. Video showed Padilla identifying himself as a U.S. senator as he was pushed from the room.
President Trump this week deployed the National Guard and Marines to California in response to violent protests, a significant break from the usual protocol in which presidents deploy troops in response to state requests. A federal judge said Trump’s use of the National Guard was illegal, but an appeals court said it could continue while the case unfolds.
“We are not going away,” Noem said before Padilla’s interruption. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
Frost first demanded Noem’s testimony during an oversight hearing on Thursday, which led to a testy back-and-forth on the dais and Comer eventually telling the Florida Democrat to “shut up.”
It’s unlikely Comer will take Frost’s suggestion; instead, Comer demanded information Friday from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom about their response to recent immigration raids and subsequent attacks on police.
To Democrats, Padilla’s arrest represented an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to challenge Congress as a coequal branch of government and increase the power of the president.
“This shocking encounter adds to a litany of alarming moves by the Trump Administration to seize and abuse power, including by turning the military on the American people,” the Democrats, led by Frost as well as Reps. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) and Summer Lee (Pa.), wrote in their letter. “The Trump Administration has mobilized the military to the streets of an American city, and any other city could be next. The Trump Administration has violently tackled, kneeled on, and handcuffed a sitting U.S. senator, and any other American could be next.”
Congressional Republicans have mostly dismissed the Padilla melee as just another stunt by Democrats. Several House Democrats recently had a run-in with federal immigration officers at a facility in New Jersey, an incident that resulted in federal charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for interfering with law enforcement.