MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Says Alex Padilla’s Removal Was ‘One Of The Bleakest Days’ Of Her Anchoring Career

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said on a Friday podcast that Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla’s Thursday removal from a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem was “one of the bleakest days” of her entire anchoring career.

Padilla disrupted Noem’s remarks, leading security to forcibly remove him from the conference room; the senator ended up face down on the ground in handcuffs just outside. On “Pod Save America,” Wallace — who has anchored “Deadline: White House” since 2017 — claimed the incident was indicative of President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism.

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“This was one of the bleakest days of anchoring that I’ve ever had in the job. I mean, we, I think, were prepared, on the losing side of the November contest, for Trump to do things that we warned he would do — and his embrace of autocracy and Orbán and Putin and others,” Wallace said. “But … I mean, Orbán hasn’t done this … he’s to the autocratic right of Orbán. And to be doing what they’re doing in full view of the cameras really does make the mind expand in new directions in terms of wondering what they’re doing to people … who aren’t one of a body of 100, and where there aren’t cameras rolling.”