Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to "liberate" Los Angeles during a press conference on Thursday, which took a dramatic turn when federal agents forcibly removed a Democratic U.S. senator from the room, pinned him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs.
Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly ejected after he tried to ask Noem a question during her press conference in Los Angeles, video of the scene shared by his office showed. Noem said later Padilla had not identified himself as a senator during the scuffle, but the video clearly shows him doing so.
"I'm Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," he shouted in a halting voice.
Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing, "Hands off!" He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.
The shocking scene of a U.S. senator being aggressively removed from a Cabinet secretary's news conference prompted immediate outrage from his Democratic colleagues. Images and video of the scuffle ricocheted through the halls of Congress, where stunned lawmakers demanded an immediate investigation and characterized the episode as another in a line of mounting threats to democracy by President Donald Trump's administration.
