The Senate Floor
It’s a sign of just how fast and crazy the 2025 news cycle has gotten that the story (accompanied by a video) of US Senator being forced to the ground and handcuffed by the FBI is barely still on the front pages of news sites a day after it happened. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a Homeland Security press conference led by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
+ The event was sick and shocking. The spin that followed was just sick. The Manhandling of Alex Padilla Was a Red-Line Moment for America. “The essence of Trumpism is just this: Dig in the heel of the boot; step on the enemy’s neck; determine in any situation the action that would be appropriately small-d democratic, and then do the opposite—go intentionally overboard, do something that shocks and offends the democratic sensibility. And then lie about it and try to reverse reality—to convince America that it didn’t see what it just saw. That truth is not what it seems.” (Unbelievably, this tactic seems to work again and again.)
+ Here’s an interview with Padilla with his side of the story (which matches the video anyone can see and hear).
+ “Just a couple hours after a federal judge had ordered President Trump to relinquish control of the California National Guard saying he had violated the U.S. Constitution, an appeals court put the order on hold until a hearing on an appeal can be held Tuesday.” (The original decision was clear and obvious. The stay was disappointing.) Appeals court blocks earlier ruling, allows Trump to command California Guard for now.
+ Meanwhile, “there are no policy changes under way to exempt farm, hotel and other leisure workers from Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Washington Post reported on Friday, a day after the U.S. president vowed to issue an order for such workers.” (So who’s in charge?)
+ “Infantry in Twentynine Palms are training at the Marine Corps’ premier live-fire base to destroy the enemy. Their tactics are geared to locate, close with and destroy the People’s Liberation Army or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, not Angelenos.” Jake Auchincloss in WaPo (Gift Article): I’m a Marine. Trump is putting soldiers in an impossible position.
