Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem explained that Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was seen as a threat because he failed to properly identify himself during a dustup Wednesday, Breitbart reported. Noem shared her side on Fox News Channel's The Story on Wednesday.
The situation unfolded when Padilla showed up at a news conference where Noem was speaking and became combative. He disrupted proceedings as she was addressing the anti-ICE riots taking over Los Angeles, Fox News reported.
Padilla "lunged" at the Noem, which forced security to remove the senator from the room and eventually handcuff him. Now, Padilla is complaining about how he was manhandled, but Noem set the record straight while speaking to host Martha MacCallum.
"This man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice and was stopped, did not identify himself and was removed from the room. So as soon as he identified himself, appropriate actions were taken," Noem explained.
Padilla can be heard yelling his name and political office, but only as he's being ushered out of the room. "If he would have requested a meeting, I would have loved to have sat down and had a conversation with him," Noem said.
"Coming into a press conference like this is political theater. It’s wrong, and it does a disservice to this country and the people who live here," she charged.
Noem explained that he was forceful and belligerent, which likely spooked security personnel. "People tried to stop him from interrupting the press conference," Noem said.
"He refused and continued to lunge towards the podium. And that is when he was removed from the room. So the way that he acted was completely inappropriate. It wasn’t becoming of a U.S. Senator or a public official," Noem said.
As a lawmaker, Padilla should understand the boundaries around a fellow official and how security might treat someone acting as he did. Instead, the senator has begun to "cash in," as a separate Fox News report called it.
Padilla, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-NY), and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) each used the incident as a fundraising tool in emails sent to donors on Friday. Padilla said that how they treated him was exactly how they'll treat the salt of the earth illegal immigrants.
Schiff gushed that Padilla is "one of the most decent people I know." The DNC, of course, claimed this was more "steps toward authoritarianism" under President Donald Trump.
However, they all failed to mention the important fact that Padilla only identified himself once security got hold of him and were already escorting him out. This was a manufactured incident orchestrated for exactly the kind of publicity he's getting now.
The people working Noem's security detail did exactly as they should have with a perceived threat. Whether or not Padilla identified himself in a timely manner, he was acting in a way that was threatening and unhinged.
