() Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Thursday that Sen. Alex Padilla should be charged and prosecuted after the California Democrat was forcibly removed and handcuffed during a Homeland Security news conference in Los Angeles.
“He should be charged. He should be prosecuted,” Greene, a Georgia Republican, told “The Hill on ,” adding that Padilla “came in very aggressively” and “actually fought police.”
Video footage shows multiple agents restraining Padilla and forcing him from the room during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference. Additional video shows agents pushing Padilla to the floor to handcuff him.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla is heard saying as he’s pushed out of the room. As he’s forced through double doors, he can be heard saying, “Hands off!”
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said Secret Service agents thought Padilla was an attacker and “acted appropriately.” Noem later said she spoke with Padilla for 15 minutes after the incident and told him no one realized who he was when he “created a scene.”
However, the video clearly shows Padilla identifying himself as a senator.
Greene criticized Padilla for not wearing his congressional identification pin and said he “resisted arrest” and “aggressively refused to leave.”
“You never saw any Republican member of Congress or senator going out aggressively towards the Biden administration secretaries and Cabinet officials,” Greene said. “You never saw us fighting police officers and resisting an arrest.”
In his own press conference following the incident, Padilla said he was there peacefully to ask a question.
“I was not arrested and I was not detained,” Padilla said. “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they are doing to farmers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout the country.”
