GOP lawmakers are standing with the federal law enforcement officers who roughed up and detained Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California on Thursday, after he attempted to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question at a news conference in his home state.
Department of Homeland Security officials and the White House have patently lied about what went down, when even Corey Lewandowski, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was once charged with assault, tried to stop law enforcement from handling Padilla so harshly.
And Republicans seem happy to accept the White House’s lies and attack Padilla.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, rather than criticize the agents who forcibly pushed Padilla out of the room and pinned him to the ground for vocally interrupting a news conference to ask a legitimate question, said Padilla deserves to be punished.
“That behavior, at a minimum, it rises to the level of a censure,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill, saying it would send a “message” that this is not how senators should act.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama repeated the lie told by DHS that Padilla didn’t identify himself when trying to ask Noem a question, despite video evidence showing Padilla identifying himself.
“You can’t show up without your pin, refuse to announce yourself, and lunge at a cabinet secretary. It doesn’t matter who you are,” Tuberville wrote in a post on X. “If Senator Padilla wanted to speak with Secretary Noem, he could have set up a meeting like everyone else. But this wasn’t about that. Senator Padilla wanted to cause a scene…and then to cry wolf when he got it.”
Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, whose claim to fame is berating teenagers for taking photos in the Capitol Rotunda, also cheered on the way Padilla was treated.
“No one is above the law,” Van Orden said, even though Padilla was not breaking the law.
Rep. Greg Steube, Republican of Florida, went as far as to call for Padilla to be arrested. “Hopefully @TheJusticeDept will charge you,” Steube wrote in a post on X.
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, meanwhile, tried to play the whataboutism game, writing in a post on X, “Imagine the headlines if a Republican Senator aggressively charged a Democrat official during a press conference…”
We have another whataboutism to offer: Imagine if former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas held a news conference in which he declared the Biden administration would “liberate” a red state from its politicians and protestors—as Noem said during Thursday’s news conference—and then allowed his security to rough up a GOP senator who objected.
Ultimately, only a few Republicans have spoken up against law enforcement officers slamming a U.S. senator to the ground.
“I’ve seen that one clip. It’s horrible. It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska.
And Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the incident “disturbing.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t denounce the incident but did say he will conduct an investigation.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened, and do what we would do on any incident like this involving a senator, which is to try to gather all the relevant information,” Thune told CNN.
How brave.