Republican strategist and The Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell is sounding the alarm to her party’s senators, urging them to defend Democratic Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) after he was forcibly restrained while attempting to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a recent press conference.
The incident, which has drawn widespread criticism, occurred when Padilla approached Noem to ask a question and was subsequently handcuffed by federal agents. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed Padilla did not identify himself as a senator, a defense repeated by Noem in a later interview with Fox News.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace scrutinized Noem’s credibility during the broadcast. “She rose, you know, like a like a firework, if you will, in veepstakes and then seemed to sabotage her own chances when she wrote in her own words, her own telling of her experience murdering her own dog by shooting her own description of frisky puppy in the face,” Wallace said.
“This is someone for whom sadistic conduct, toward animals at least, was part of her brand,” Wallace added. “How do you think she’s writing this out in terms of the manner in which she went on Fox News, seeming confident that no one would check her facts?” Longwell, meanwhile, emphasized that the treatment of Padilla could set a dangerous precedent for all members of the Senate.
“Republican senators should be very careful on this right now,” she said. “If they do not come out and defend Senator Padilla’s right to ask questions of this administration, of his colleagues, they are setting an extraordinarily dangerous precedent for how senators are going to be treated in this country.”
She added, “They should protect their own institution. They should have an interest in their office being protected from this kind of behavior.” Longwell also called out the hypocrisy in the DHS’s accusations of “performative theater.” “It’s interesting,” she said, “because nobody has done more cosplaying. You know, she’s constantly dressing herself up like a federal agent.
She’s constantly putting detainees behind her for photo-ops, which is some of the grossest behavior I’ve ever seen out of a public official.” Addressing the broader implications, Longwell said, “We have to have free speech in this country. Well, a sitting senator should be able to ask a question of the head of the Department of Homeland Security.”
She also questioned Noem’s supposed ignorance. “I find it odd that Kristi Noem wouldn’t recognize Senator Alex Padilla. I mean, he is the ranking member, I believe, on one of the immigration committees. So, the idea that she absolutely doesn’t know who he is is absurd.”
Padilla is, in fact, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety. Longwell concluded with a warning about the administration’s authoritarian tone. “This is not one off,” she said. “This is about how this entire administration is approaching people who dissent… Being disrespectful is not a reason to handcuff somebody on the ground. It’s just not.”