Padilla says FBI agent, Guard member escorted him to Noem's briefing before removal

• Tensions were already high, as protests in Los Angeles over the administration's aggressive immigration crackdown set the stage for a showdown between President Trump and state Democratic officials.
• When Padilla interrupted Noem to try to ask a question, Axios' Noah Bressner reported, she had just said her agents were staying in LA to "liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country."

Driving the news: Padilla said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that he arrived at a federal building for a scheduled briefing with representatives from U.S. Northern Command when he learned Noem was having a press conference "a couple doors down."

• He said he requested to listen in and was escorted into the room by a member of the National Guard and an FBI agent.
• "They opened the door for me, and they stood next to me while I was listening for the entire time," he told CNN's Dana Bash. "And then, of course, once I was forcibly removed and handcuffed."

Friction point: DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday that Padilla "interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself" and that Secret Service believed he was "an attacker."

• In footage of the incident shared by McLaughlin on social media, Padilla can be heard saying, "I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary" as he is pushed away.
• "What does it say about the secretary to not know who the senator from California is, the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration?" Padilla questioned Sunday.
• Reached for comment Sunday, McLaughlin told Axios that "[s]erious people don't barge into a press conference, interrupt while the Secretary of Homeland Security is giving opening remarks and then start aggressively lunging toward her, defying officers' commands to move back and then pushing and shoving law enforcement."

Yes, but: Padilla's fellow California Senator, Adam Schiff (D), also said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that Padilla was escorted into the press conference.

• "This is not some rabble-rouser," Schiff said. "And to see him mistreated that way and tackled to the ground and shackled that way and in the midst of what we're seeing more broadly in Los Angeles is just atrocious."

Zoom out: On Saturday, Padilla led the entirety of the Senate Democratic caucus in demanding that Trump remove all military forces from LA and stop threatening to further deploy troops, Axios' Stephen Neukam scooped.

• Trump federalized the state's National Guard earlier this month, despite opposition from California leaders, and mobilized hundreds of Marines amid the protests.
• Padilla asked Sunday why the administration would "escalate" the situation by sending in the Marines, saying unrest in LA had been quieting down.
• Demonstrations condemning the administration's mass deportation push have spread through cities across the country.

Go deeper: Republicans are all over the place on Alex Padilla's forcible removal