Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla was only roughed up by federal agents because he “attacked” her during a confrontation at a news conference this past summer.Back in June, Padilla was dramatically ejected from a Los Angeles press briefing as Noem addressed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s controversial deportation blitz across Southern California.Video of the chaotic scene showed government personnel pushing and pulling the senator as they tried to drag him out of the room, where he was subsequently detained.Looking back on the incident during Tuesday’s episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Noem said Padilla was totally to blame for his tussle with officials.“He absolutely did storm at me,” she told Watters, parroting accusations made by Attorney General Pam Bondi during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier that day.“He hit the ground because of how he attacked me that day,” President Donald Trump’s top deportation hawk said. “So, it’s hard to deny the video evidence.”Footage from the incident doesn’t quite match up with Noem’s recollection, however.Noem was far from Padilla’s reach when he rushed towards the front of the room, loudly identified himself as a senator and was seized by authorities before being able to ask a question. Only once he was violently ousted from the conference area was he forced to the ground and then handcuffed.Sen. Alex Padilla was pushed out of the room as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference in Los Angeles back in June 12.MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images via Getty ImagesThe DHS boss defended agents’ response after the altercation, claiming Padilla had “crashed” the briefing when agents were forced into action after he appeared to be “lunging forward” at her.Disputing her account in an interview with MSNBC, the senator said the National Guard had formally escorted him to Noem’s conference while he was at the Los Angeles federal building, attending to other business.“I spent a few minutes in the back of the room just listening in until the rhetoric,” he explained. “The political rhetoric got to be too much to take. So, I spoke up.”Close