Former CNN host Jim Acosta and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona expressed outrage on Thursday after Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla’s removal from a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.
Padilla interrupted Noem’s remarks, prompting security to forcibly eject him from the conference room, with the senator ending up face down on the ground in handcuffs just outside. Acosta and Cardona reacted to the incident on “The Jim Acosta Show” immediately after it occurred, calling it “outrageous” and launching into profanity-laced rants. (RELATED: Democrat Lawmaker Gets Booted From Trump Speech Almost Instantly By Mike Johnson)
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“You know, Jim, I don’t normally cuss in public, but this is fucking outrageous. I am sorry. My blood is boiling right now and I was so happy to see your note about how you wanted to go live because it literally happened seconds ago,” Cardona said. “And you know how I’m on a ton of group chats with leadership and activists and strategists and local electeds that are in the Latino community nationally — everyone is up in arms. And it’s not just Latinos. It’s everyone who understands what this means in terms of our democracy. It means we might not have one anymore, Jim. This is a literal dissension before our eyes into fascism.”
“A senator of the United States of America who was asking the Secretary of Homeland Security a question. He was not being aggressive. He was not somewhere where he was not supposed to be. It was a press conference,” she continued. “It was public. That’s where people go to ask questions. And the law enforcement officers grabbed him. Didn’t just take him outside of that room — forcibly, Jim. There is now video of him being forced to the ground, handcuffed and people telling him, ‘Stay on the ground. Stay on the ground.’ A United States senator, Jim.”
Noem was addressing the Los Angeles riots when Padilla began shouting a question at her. Security quickly rushed to the senator and instructed him to put his hands up, which he resisted doing as they escorted him from the room.
After pushing the senator out of the conference room, he was told to lie on his stomach as he was placed in handcuffs.
Acosta described the treatment of Padilla as “absolutely disgusting.”
“This is not how a United States senator is treated in this country. And the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem — they should be ashamed of themselves right now,” he added. “Anybody who works in that administration, they should be ashamed of what just took place moments ago in L.A., when the senator … simply tried to ask some questions. That should not result in you getting beaten up by the authorities — a bunch of thugs. They look like a bunch of fucking thugs.”
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin denounced Padilla for his behavior in an X post following the incident, alleging he was “disrespectful” and “lunged toward Secretary Noem” while neglecting to identify himself as a senator.
“Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” McLaughlin wrote. “@SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”
MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace on “Pod Save America” Friday also described the incident as “one of the bleakest days” of her entire anchoring career, claiming it was indicative of President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism.
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