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 [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán and [Russian President Vladimir] 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.”
“I think it’s a chilling moment, both in the treatment of someone from the other political party, but I think it’s also a really ominous sign of what they’re willing to use DHS — and those were FBI agents who had the senator on the ground — [FBI Deputy Director] Dan Bongino confirmed that in a statement,” she continued. “And it’s a real ‘what the fuck are we doing?’ moment, I think, for the whole country.”
Noem was discussing the Los Angeles riots when Padilla began shouting a question at her. Security rapidly rushed to the senator and directed him to put his hands up, which he refused to do, fighting back as they escorted him from the room.
After shoving Padilla out of the conference room, the senator was instructed to lie on his stomach as he was handcuffed.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin criticized Padilla for his behavior in an X post after 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.”
She also wrote that Padilla and Noem subsequently convened for a 15-minute meeting.
“I was there peacefully, at one point I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. 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,” Padilla told reporters on Thursday after the incident. “I will say this, 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, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.”
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