Update and correction: Padilla was not officially arrested: PADILLA: "I was not arrested. I was not detained. 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. We will hold this administration accountable."show more

URGENT BREAKING: Democrat US Senator Alex Padilla was just thrown to the ground and arrested for trying to speak at a DHS Press Conference by Secretary Kristi Noem. This is Trump’s America. This is so incredibly pathetic. I am so sad for the state of this country.

Brian’s absolutely right! Whether or not there was a formal “arrest,” the message is the same: this is how the administration treats anyone who dares ask tough questions.

Read our next article in this ongoing investigation that shows how the government's seizure of this private property and arrest of its owner further exposes the eco-tyranny happening in California...

Of course you weren’t arrested because you didnt commit a crime. Exercising freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in a public federal building is not a crime. He doesn’t even have to identify himself to be there. As soon as they put their hands on him it was assault nevermind throwing you to the ground to handcuff you. Everyone of those agents need to hand in their badges and guns.

That's why you wait until you have all the facts. Now you just look like a fool with even less credibility because of your lies.

He went in there acting like a king and found out he’s only a peasant.

He must still sue them for that traumatic and disgraceful abuse he experienced. Trump and his thugs have crossed the line. It's unAmerican. I hope they will rot in prison one day.

He came in like an idiot. He fucked around and found out. Cry harder

alex padilla tried to physically push through law enforcement at a live press conference, shouted over everyone, ignored orders to stop, and assaulted security. he thought being a senator made him untouchable turns out, it just made the arrest more satisfying. good on law enforcement

Brian Krassenstein's clarification is important for precision, but it doesn't change the horrifying reality of what happened to Senator Alex Padilla. Whether it was an 'official arrest' or not, Senator Padilla's own words - 'I was forced to the ground and I was handcuffed' - describe a physical assault and an outrageous act of intimidation by federal agents against an elected U.S. Senator. That is, unequivocally, a travesty against America. And Senator Padilla is absolutely right to pivot to the most crucial point: if this is how federal agents treat a U.S. Senator who simply wants to ask a question, imagine the brutality, the fear, and the sheer abuse of power they are unleashing every single day on farmworkers, cooks, day laborers, and other vulnerable communities across this country. This incident lays bare the authoritarian tactics of this administration: control, intimidation, and the systematic suppression of dissent. We will hold this administration accountable for every single one of these egregious acts.

Democrats have coronered the market on political theatre. This was yet another childish stunt by Democrats. .@Sec_Noem: "I had a conversation with the Senator after this. We sat down for 10-15 minutes and talked about the fact that nobody knew who he was. He didn't say who he was until he already had been lunging forward and people were trying to detain him ... Coming into a press conference like this is political theater."

Semantics, when you are detained and handcuffed you have been deprived of your liberty, however brief