A Democratic Senator was forcibly removed from a press conference held by US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to multiple US media.
Noem was defending the mass arrests of undocumented migrants, a policy that has sparked protests in Los Angeles and many other US cities.
As she spoke, Democratic Senator Alex Padilla interrupted her and attempted to ask a question.
Incident provokes outrage among Democrats
The California Senator was then “forcibly removed by federal agents, restrained on the ground, and handcuffed,” according to a statement from Padilla’s office.
Various US television channels, including CNN and MSNBC, showed images of the incident. A video sent by Padilla’s office to NBC News showed the senator being forced into a hallway outside and pushed face forward onto the ground as officers wearing FBI vests told him to put his hands behind his back before handcuffing him. He was later released.
Footage of the arrest of the senator, a highly prestigious position in the United States, immediately provoked outrage among Democrats amid tensions over President Donald Trump’s response to demonstrations in Los Angeles against an ongoing crackdown on undocmented immigrants.
Republicans blame the opposition senator
“I just saw something that sickened my stomach," Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, reacted on X. "The manhandling of a United States Senator, we need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Padilla is a member, also issued a reaction on X. “We demand a full investigation and consequences for every official involved in this assault against a sitting US senator,” the group said.
Some Republican legislators, on the other hand, blamed Padilla. The Fox News television channel quoted John Barrasso, a Republican senator from the state of Wyoming, as saying when asked for a reaction: “I think [Padilla] should have been here in Washington voting. He has a responsibility to his constituents, to show up at work, not to go try to make a spectacle of himself.”
'Horrible... shocking,' dissenting Repubican says
However, at least one Republican legislator refused to condone the manhandling of the opposition lawmaker.
“It’s horrible. It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know,” Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator who represents the state of Alaska, was quoted as saying by Fox News.
