Padilla episode triggers five-alarm fire for Democrats
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Sen. Alex Padilla is ejected from a press conference held by Secretary of Homeland Security in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Democrats spooked by President Trump's state-sanctioned shows of force have shifted into five-alarm fire mode, warning he's pushing American democracy to the brink.
Why it matters: They're pointing to what happened yesterday to Alex Padilla, California's senior senator, as a crossing-the-Rubicon moment.
Driving the news: The jarring scene of Padilla, a Democrat, being forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference after interrupting it — and then being dragged to the ground and handcuffed — felt like kerosene on the nation's political fire.
- To Trump's most loyal allies, Padilla's actions were merely an exercise in political theater. Back in D.C., House Speaker Mike Johnson was among the Republicans blaming Padilla, saying that "at a minimum," the senator should be censured.
To Democrats, the episode crystallized fears about Trump's willingness to crush dissent, and shatter democratic norms and institutions.
- "This is the stuff of dictatorships. It is actually happening," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
- A few Republicans were just as alarmed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who's repeatedly proved her independent streak, told reporters the incident was "shocking at every level. It's not the America I know."
Padilla wasn't arrested, but the fallout from the incident promises to endure as Congress continues to wrestle with Trump's giant tax and spending bill.
Zoom in: To fully understand the alarm that's gripping Democrats over the Padilla incident, consider two factors:
1. It took place in a mostly Democratic city where Trump's immigration agents are using military-style tactics to conduct raids and make arrests in mostly Hispanic communities and workplaces.
- Padilla is one of the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic public officials, and is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration panel.
2. Trump's over-the-top-enforcement seems to be about more than immigration.
- When Padilla interrupted Noem during her press conference to try to ask a question, the DHS secretary had just said that her agents were in Los Angeles "to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country."
- Those were references to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Democrats who've blasted Trump's decisions to send National Guard troops and Marines to the city.
