THE DAILY BEAST
Trump Calls Handcuffed Senator Vile Racial Slur
Kenneal Patterson
Fri, June 13, 2025
Donald Trump is trying to justify federal agents handcuffing California Senator Alex Padilla by suggesting that he “looked like an illegal,” his leading biographer has revealed.
“Trump saw these pictures and then has been on the phone saying to people, ‘Nobody’s ever heard of this guy,’” Michael Wolff, the bestselling author, said this week on The Daily Beast Podcast. “As though that’s an excuse. And then he’s gone on to say, ‘and he looks like an illegal.’”
Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, was thrown to the ground Thursday after going to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles and trying to ask her a question.
Senator Alex Padilla was trying to ask Sec. Kristi Noem a question when her security shoved him out of the room and tackled him to the ground. / MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Dail / MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Noem was bashing California lawmakers after mass protests in Los Angeles erupted against ICE raids when the attack started.
Padilla decided to interrupt the conference to demand why she was “exaggerating and embellishing.” He was in the middle of asking his question when Noem’s security shoved him out of the room. He could be heard repeatedly identifying himself as a United States senator.
Once in the hallway, the agents—who included Secret Service and FBI—pushed him to the ground and handcuffed his hands behind his back.
Wolff said that Trump excused the assault by dismissing Padilla as an immigrant nobody.
“If you are famous, that would obviously put you in a different category and ICE agents would not have tackled you,” said Wolff, explaining Trump’s rationale.
Trump's justification for this scene was both that Padilla is "unknown" and he "looks like an illegal"
“Padilla is actually a relatively new senator from California, nobody knows about this person. Therefore, perfectly understandable that the ICE agents would tackle him. And of course he looks like ‘an illegal.’
“This is just his visceral response: Nobody’s ever heard of him,” Wolff added. “We can take the blame off the ICE agents because they haven’t heard about this guy.”
Wolff said that Trump was “a little unsettled by the Padilla thing” and is attempting to sweep it under the rug. Democratic lawmakers had seized on it as an unconstitutional outrage and even two Republican senators—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, both on-off Trump critics—had spoken out against it.
“He’s rationalizing this in some way which might brand him as a complete racist once more,” Wolff added. “Although I’m sure he doesn’t particularly care about that.”
Senator Alex Padilla clearly identified himself as a senator before he was dragged out of the room. / Luke Johnson / Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In response White House Communications Director Steven Cheung recycled a previous attack on Wolff and said, “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of shit and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
Padilla was the first Latino president of the L.A. City Council. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and is now the senior senator from the state.
Trump has indulged in anti-immigrant stereotypes long before this year’s mass immigration crackdown. When announcing his presidential bid in 2015, he said that Mexico was sending criminals and “rapists” across the border.
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us,” he said at the time. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.“
President Donald Trump has long perpetuated negative stereotypes about Mexican immigrants, suggesting that many are criminals and rapists. / Kevin Dietsch / Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
He also raised eyebrows during his final 2016 presidential debate saying that he wanted to get the “bad hombres” out of the United States.
A key pillar of Trump’s second presidency has been immigration. He has upended immigration policy through executive orders and an aggressive campaign of raids, detentions, and deportations.
Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from Sec. Kristi Noem's press conference Thursday. / PATRICK T. FALLON / Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Noem’s excuse for her agents tackling Padilla was that the senator lunged at her despite them being far apart and several videos showing no evidence to back up her claim.
The manhandling of Padilla has incited a wave of backlash from 2028 presidential hopefuls like Governor Gavin Newsom, who called the assault “outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful.”
“Trump and his shock troops are out of control,” he said. ”This must end now."
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“Manhandling” Of California Sen. Alex Padilla By Federal Agents In L.A. Puts Trump Team In Spin Mode – Update
Dominic Patten
Thu, June 12, 2025
UPDATED: Outrage and spin are proving the partisan fallout of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) being hauled out of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference Thursday in Los Angeles and handcuffed by federal agents.
After the incident, Padilla explained what occurred when he went to ask Noem a question about the thousands of troops deployed to L.A. and the ramped-up rounding up of undocumented immigrants (and more than a few legal immigrants) by ICE agents in recent weeks.
“I began to ask a question,” Padilla said. “I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.”
If that’s what they do to a United States Senator with a question, imagine what they do to farm workers, day laborers, cooks, and the other nonviolent immigrants they are targeting in California and across the country. Or any American that dares to speak up.
I will not stop… pic.twitter.com/TUgT060yx2
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) June 12, 2025
The clarification about whether California’s senior senator was actually arrested did nothing to lessen the blow that what happened to Padilla is what’s happening to American democracy and immigrant communities.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, we can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, said outside the federal building in West LA this afternoon. “We will hold this administration accountable.”
Fellow Golden State native Kamala Harris was quick to weigh in on what occurred to the man who replaced her in the Senate in 2021 when she became Vice President, calling it “a shameful and stunning abuse of power.”
United States Senator Alex Padilla was representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this Administration's actions in Southern California.
This is a shameful and stunning abuse of power.pic.twitter.com/ODTNb92JE4
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 12, 2025
In Washington, DC, as the attack on Padilla took over cable news and the Internet, Democratic House leader Hakeem Jefferies responded in stronger than usual words. “The Trump administration is a disgrace, Secretary Noem is a disgrace, the manhandling of Sen Alex Padilla was a disgrace … it’s un-American,” Jeffries said today with California’s other senator, Adam Schiff, standing beside him.
In typical Trump administration fashion, Noem took to the safe space of Fox News to offer justification for the incident with Padilla.
“Nobody knew who he was when he came into the room, creating a scene,” Noem told Fox’s Martha MacCallum in live counterprogramming to Padilla’s speaking to the media.
“He was removed from the room, and yes, they started to put handcuffs on him when he finally identified himself, and then that was stopped,” she said of the potential constitutional crisis flashpoint moment. “They said he wants to talk to us and, sure, I’d love to sit down and visit. So, we went to a room and visited for 10 or 15 minutes and then exchanged phone numbers.”
With more Republicans picking up on false accusations of “storming cabinet secretaries,” Noem doubled down on the clichés on TV: “I’m so sick of the politics, Martha. This is literally people’s lives.”
As Noem spins her own version of events, there has been no confirmation from Padilla’s office of that meeting.
It should be noted that Padilla was identifying himself as a senator as the widely circulated video of the incident confirms. Noem has also met and interacted with Padilla on numerous occasions, especially since the former South Dakota governor was appointed to run DHS.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to social media to point out the gap between what Noem, the GOP, and the DHS officially say and what anyone can plainly see and hear:
“Didn’t identify himself”? It’s the FIRST THING out of his mouth in the video.
You’ve detained a mayor. A judge. A union leader. Now a U.S. Senator.
You’ve deployed Marines on U.S. soil.
If a President did this abroad, we'd have a word for it: Dictator. https://t.co/h4wNMPu9Rt
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) June 12, 2025
In the video of the attack, Padilla, who was in the high-level security building for a meeting with military leaders about the troop presence in L.A., repeated that he had a question. Padilla had been in the room for several minutes before starting to ask the question, with no apparent move by federal agents to a so-called security threat.
Earlier today, in a hearing on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is a defendant in Newsom’s bid for a temporary restraining order against troops in L.A., refused to commit to the administration complying with court orders. At the same time, Donald Trump himself today walked back parts of his anti-migrant policy after getting complaints from corporate America.
PREVIOUSLY, 12:22 PM: “We are a democracy, but we can lose that democracy,” a mournful Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said Thursday at the U.S. Capitol mere minutes after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was stunningly dragged out of a West Los Angeles press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Padilla was handcuffed and hauled off. “This is so wrong, this is so wrong,” Murray said.
The senator’s office says that Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, was not detained, but he has not emerged from the federal building yet. DHS has said the Secret Service shockingly reacted, or overreacted, because they thought Padilla was an “attacker” who seemed to “lunge at Noem” – a statement that makes no sense with the level of security required to even get inside a federal building.
With tensions high in L.A. and thousands of National Guard and U.S. Marines deployed and protests over the harsh ICE raids, DHS says Noem and Padilla had a 15-minute meeting afterwards. That has not been independently confirmed; Padilla is expected to speak on the matter soon.
The widely condemned reaction by federal agents as Padilla was seeking to ask Noem questions comes as massive raids on undocumented immigrants, including at churches and school graduations, have been unleashed across California and the nation over the past week. A pivotal court hearing is set to start in the next hour on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for an emergency temporary restraining order on Trump federalizing the Golden State National Guard on June 7 without consultation with the state.
Newsom expressed his own outrage at what happened to Padilla today, pointing the finger at Trump and his authoritarian rule.
.@SenAlexPadilla is one of the most decent people I know.
This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful.
Trump and his shock troops are out of control.
This must end now. pic.twitter.com/Eki2cuTymb
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 12, 2025
If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you. pic.twitter.com/cHmK5KZIVF
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 12, 2025
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A congressional hearing quickly devolved into a shouting match between two Republicans and a Democrat who sought a subpoena for Kristi Noem over the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from a Thursday press conference.
During a Thursday hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) implored his fellow lawmakers to subpoena Noem over the incident, which saw her security team manhandle and handcuff the California Democrat after he loudly questioned the homeland security secretary about ICE raids that have led to nationwide protests.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla is pushed out and handcuffed as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference in Los Angeles on June 12. / The Daily Beast/Etienne Laurent/AP/Office of Sen. Alex Padilla
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee chairman, quickly waved off Frost’s concerns over the incident.
“Mr. Chair, also, we were just talking about this. I want to know if you can commit to working with us so we can subpoena,” Frost began to say, before Comer cut him off.
“You’re out of order,” Comer replied.
The two congressmen briefly spoke over each other until Comer recognized MAGA firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who entered the tense scene guns blazing.
The stupid Miss, the bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body- Isn't she a DEI-elected "woman"? - from former pro-slavery anti-women's lib Southern dipshit state of Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, arguing with Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost over House rules. / Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS
“We need to subpoena Kristi Noem,” Frost repeated. “It’s her staff, DHS federal officers, that threw a U.S. senator to the ground.”
Greene continued to talk over the young Democrat: “There’s a privilege of the majority, and that means we’re in charge. Not your side, because you lost the election, because you supported the invasion of our country.”
Frost, Greene, and Comer all refused to back down until the chairman grew exasperated with the back-and-forth.
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost sought a commitment that the House Oversight Committee would subpoena Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. / C-SPAN
“Shut up. Just shut up,” Comer told Frost, who had repeatedly asked him to commit to subpoenaing Noem.
“No, you’re not gonna tell me to shut up,” Frost hit back.
“He’s been out of order six times,” Comer said of Frost. “He is trying to get on MSNBC. You probably knocked somebody off MSNBC to get on there.”
The chairman then handed the floor over to Greene, who lobbed a bizarre accusation at Frost without providing evidence.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a MAGA bonehead moron, listening to Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost during a tense exchange on Thursday. / Getty Images
“I think because he’s been arrested as a former antifa member, right?” she said of Padilla, referring to the far-left movement. “He’s a former antifa member… Not surprised.”
Frost appeared to be in disbelief as he asked for Greene’s remarks to be taken off the record.
The dramatic interaction ended when Greene turned her attention to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to ask questions.
Several Democrats have rallied around Padilla following his wild takedown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an immediate probe into the “un-American” incident: “To look at this video and see what happened reeks—reeks—of totalitarianism," he said. “This is not what democracies do.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed Schumer in a post, stating that those behind “the brazen and aggressive manhandling of Senator Padilla” must be “held accountable.”
Noem called Padilla’s interruption “inappropriate,” while Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin slammed the senator for choosing “disrespectful political theater.” Noem and Padilla spoke for 15 minutes after the incident, McLaughlin said.
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