After legislation enforcement assaulted Senator Alex Padilla, we all know: We’re the one guardrails. Present up at a “No Kings” rally Saturday.
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US Senator Alex Padilla speaks to reporters outdoors of the Wilshire Federal Constructing, after he was forcibly faraway from a information convention being held by Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on June 12, 2025.
(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)
I felt sick watching California Senator Alex Padilla get battered by legislation enforcement on Thursday afternoon. Seeing cops tackling an unarmed brown man, forcing him to the bottom and demanding he put his palms behind his again so they might cuff him. “Should you’d let me put my palms behind my again,” he replied to the officers who had been holding his arms. We’ve seen this earlier than. If it occurred on a metropolis avenue, it virtually actually wouldn’t have ended as nicely for Padilla.
We’re virtually inured to those movies, primarily of unarmed Black and brown males being humiliated, compelled to the bottom and handcuffed, usually in entrance of family members. This was within the federal constructing in Los Angeles within the view of the nationwide media. That made it no simpler to look at. It’s traumatic. I stored feeling like these thugs assaulting Padilla had been decided to harm him. Perhaps they did; he didn’t say, when he spoke to the media.
“If that is how the DHS responds to a senator with a query, you may solely think about what they’re doing to farmworkers, cooks, day laborers out within the Los Angeles neighborhood and all through California and all through the nation,” Padilla mentioned in short remarks to the media. He teared up as he talked about Trump’s victims.
In case you thought pet killer Kristi Noem may really feel regret, the DHS secretary instantly went to Fox and lied. She mentioned Padilla didn’t determine himself—he did—and he “burst in” and “lunged” on the podium. That brown brute!
Spineless Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned Congress ought to “censure” Padilla for his uppity invasion of Miss Kristi’s area.
All of us noticed the videoliars.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla,” he mentioned. “I’ve questions for the secretary.” Her thugs rapidly started grabbing him by his jacket and shoving him towards the door. “As a result of the actual fact of the matter is, she has a half dozen violent criminals on rotation,” Padilla mentioned, referring to the mugshots of the identical “prison” immigrants the administration peddles. Then he cried, “Arms off!” Padilla stopped resisting; they shoved him to the ground anyway.
Noem is the prison. Simply earlier than Padilla interrupted her, she warned: “We’re not going away. We’re staying right here to liberate the town from the socialists and the burdensome management that this governor and that this mayor have positioned on this nation and what they’ve tried to insert into the town.” Searching for to overturn duly elected leaders? Staging a California coup?
Keep in mind, federal prosecutors indicted New Jersey Consultant LaMonica McIver this week, after a scuffle at an ICE detention middle the place the one violent individuals got here from legislation enforcement. Final month, a Milwaukee County Circuit Courtroom decide was arrested on the courthouse and charged with interfering with immigration officers final month. Final Friday, David Huerta, president of the Service Staff Worldwide Union California, was arrested after he nonviolently protested an immigration raid in Los Angeles. This week, President Trump speculated about arresting California Governor Gavin Newsom (cowardly Mike Johnson mentioned Newsom ought to merely be “tarred and feathered”).
Padilla’s assault was captured on dramatic video, however to date it hasn’t fairly mustered the outrage it ought to. Senate minority chief Chuck Schumer did categorical his outrage, however merely referred to as for an “investigation.” What ought to we examine, Senator Schumer, whether or not the senator mentioned “Mom, might I?” earlier than asking his query, after we noticed all of it ourselves? (I’m attempting to say it in a manner Schumer will perceive.) Home minority chief Hakeem Jeffries mentioned“Anybody who assaulted the Senator must be held accountable.” Glad he’s utilizing the phrase “assault,” however all of the assaulters are caught on digicam. And what does “accountable” imply?
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Padilla later instructed MSNBC that he was truly within the constructing for a gathering concerning the federal invasion of Los Angeles with federal authorities when he heard about Noem’s press convention. He mentioned he was escorted to the room by FBI and Secret Service officers; he didn’t barge in. “The place I grew up, you already know what occurs if you happen to defy legislation enforcement,” he mentioned, so he complied. Padilla mentioned he finally met briefly with Noem, however she didn’t reply his questions. Or apologize. He urged People to hitch Saturday’s “No Kings” rally.
Once more, Democratic leaders don’t appear to be assembly the second, with a number of exceptions, together with Padilla. Governor Gavin Newsom has met the second in the previous couple of days, standing as much as Trump firmly and eloquently, regardless of his lurch to the correct on trans points, his bizarre manosphere-courting podcast, and his calling Consultant Chris Van Hollen’s journey to El Salvador to go to Kilmar Abrego Garcia “a distraction.” I hope Newsom wouldn’t say that in the present day.
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Newsom bought a authorized increase when federal Decide Charles Breyer dominated that Trump’s federalizing the Nationwide Guard in California was “unlawful—each exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Modification to the US Structure” and that Trump “should due to this fact return management of the California Nationwide Guard to the governor of the state of California forthwith.” The administration instantly appealed, and the US Courtroom of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stayed Breyer’s ruling whereas it opinions the case, maintaining it from taking impact.
However Breyer used language that should encourage extra People to end up for Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies throughout the nation. “That’s the distinction between a Constitutional authorities and King George,” Breyer mentioned, referring to the British king whose authoritarian rule sparked the American revolution. “It’s not {that a} chief can merely say one thing and it turns into it…. That’s not the place we reside.… This nation was based in response to a monarch.”
Despite the fact that Breyer’s ruling was briefly stayed, his phrases are appropriate.
Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh, a nationwide affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Present and the creator of What’s the Matter With White Individuals? Discovering Our Approach within the Subsequent America. Her new e book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Company Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Defend Revenue, Energy and Wealth In America.
