Republican lawmakers aren’t concerned that their colleague, California Sen. Alex Padilla, was shoved out of a Los Angeles press conference Thursday and handcuffed by law enforcement while face-down on the ground.
“Play stupid games, get stupid prizes,” Rep. Rich McCormick, a Georgia Republican, told NOTUS when asked about Padilla’s treatment by law enforcement. “He looked very aggressive. I don’t know what he was thinking. It’s a silly way to approach somebody. A guy who has that much power, he should know better.”
“First of all, it’s inappropriate, and secondly, it never makes a difference,” McCormick continued. “All he’s doing is grandstanding.”
His response was a far cry from how Democrats reacted. Some wondered aloud if this was the start of outright fascism in America.
“It had me thinking: Is this what it felt like to be in Germany in 1933?” Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California told reporters from a jostling crowd of Democratic lawmakers on the Capitol steps, in the sweltering D.C. heat. “This is not the end, I’m afraid, but the beginning of the outrageous, lawless action being undertaken by this administration.”
And Rep. Brad Sherman, another California Democrat, offered a stark warning. “This is how democracies unravel.”
Republicans, though, overwhelmingly see the situation differently.
In interviews with NOTUS on Thursday, GOP lawmakers said they had no concerns about police wrestling a U.S. senator to the ground or handcuffing him, given the security concerns cabinet members face. They said Padilla had no right to be there and shouldn’t have interrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. And they dismissed Democrats’ fears about fascism as outlandish.
“Talk about drama,” McCormick said of Lofgren’s comments about Germany in 1933.
🚨 #BREAKING @SenAlexPadilla tries to interrupt a press conference by @DHSgov Sec @KristiNoem and he’s forcibly removed.
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 12, 2025
California’s senior U.S. Senator was handcuffed and detained.
Video from @AlexPadilla4CA’s staff 🚨 pic.twitter.com/PXfszkBXxo
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, also pushed back on Democrats’ rhetoric.
“We have very strong institutions,” she told NOTUS. “We have a very strong judicial system, legislative, a very strong executive. So that’s not the fear. That’s not the problem.”
She said she believed Padilla didn’t identify himself clearly enough.
“It’s pretty frustrating and sad, what’s happening in the whole country,” she added, referring to protests over deportations. “That’s why we need to fix the immigration laws.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson placed the blame for the altercation squarely at Padilla’s feet.
“It was wildly inappropriate,” Johnson told reporters. “You don’t charge a sitting cabinet secretary.”
Padilla interrupted the conference and stood to speak, stating his name and saying he was a senator. Police responded quickly, forcing him out of the room and onto the floor. Noem said the pair met afterward to speak, and he has since been released.
“The Dems oftentimes believe they look heroic when they do these kinds of things,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican, told NOTUS of Padilla’s appearance at the press conference. “But that’s just more of a ’60s hippy attitude.”
And Rep. Darrell Issa, another California Republican, described Padilla’s actions as “a mistake, a minor error in judgment.”
“I think he’s better than that,” Issa said. “I hope that we can put it behind us.”
Rep. Paul Gosar likewise said lawmakers “can’t just barge into everybody, whether you’re a senator or a House member.”
Gosar had a simple answer for Democrats who are worried about fascism: “They’re the fascists.”
Rep. Jodey Arrington said Padilla has the “right to speak his mind,” but “there are certain events that he shouldn’t be able to just go in and disrupt.”
Democrats argued Padilla was doing his job, exercising oversight as Noem’s agency has conducted deportations in the state he represents.
Republican senators mostly scoffed at Padilla’s actions. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina quipped that Padilla got what he wanted — airtime on television — and Sen. John Barrasso responded by asking why Padilla wasn’t present in Washington, D.C. for votes.
As of Thursday afternoon, just one GOP senator had responded with horror, siding with Padilla.
“It’s horrible,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters. “It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know.”
Murkowski remains an outlier, though.
Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina told NOTUS he hadn’t seen video of the incident, but “he must have done something pretty egregious” for police to treat him like that.
“To do that, he was out of line in some form or fashion,” Norman concluded. “If you want to do a peaceful protest, fine. If you start shouting down all of the speakers, you need to get thrown out.”
Norman was indignant to hear that Democrats are raising the specter of fascism in response: “If she wants to live in another country, do it. If we’re that bad, go to another country. Just go to another country,” he said.
Some Republicans tried to bring down the temperature.
Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana told reporters that “everyone just needs to take a deep breath and understand we’re all Americans.”
And Rep. Clay Higgins was mystified by the situation.
“Well, what are you gonna do?” he said. “It’s a wild time in America.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.
Daniella Diaz, Em Luetkemeyer, Samuel Larreal, and Torrence Banks contributed reporting.