In the middle of a challenging situation Americans hope their elected officials will act in a manner displaying professionalism and integrity. The elected officials do that in a spectrum of behavior. Rarely does an elected official act in a grossly irresponsible manner. That was what happened last week when Senator Alex Padilla entered a room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was having a press briefing. Let me explain.
Let us lay out the facts as we know them and not as distorted by the legacy media. Senator Padilla states he was in the building for a scheduled meeting with the head of the National Guard in Los Angeles. That person is General Gregory Michael Guillot who is the commander of the United States Northern Command. Padilla found out that Secretary Noem was in the building and he diverted to her scheduled press briefing because he claims he and his colleagues had not received responses to inquiries.
If that was so, the proper thing to do was approach Noem after her activities were over, politely address her face-to-face, and request a meeting. It appears he had in his mind the proper way to manage the situation was to publicly confront her and ask questions which many might have perceived as being hostile and confrontational.
Senator Padilla entered the room (you can watch the video on YouTube) and did not identify himself. He started to approach the Secretary. Her security detail saw a sizable man (Padilla is 6 feet, three inches) unknown to them walking toward the Secretary. He continued toward the Secretary, having neither identified himself with anyone nor had he asked anyone if he could approach. He was dressed casually with no identifying markers that he was a U.S. senator. When the security detail engaged in what they saw as a threat, they started to physically move the threat away from the person they were assigned to protect. Only at that point, Padilla stated who he was and why he was in the room. Since they had no clue what Senator Padilla looked like they acted in the manner that they did not believe who he was and therefore he was an active threat who he must be removed.
The interesting aspect of this is Senator Padilla appeared to have no staff with him. He was going to a significant meeting with a major figure (the general) without staff? That is hard to believe. Whenever you see elected officials (especially someone as high up as a U.S. senator), they always have staff with them. At minimum, there is a “bodyman.” That is a political term for someone who is with the elected official wherever they go and take care of whatever they need to do. The position is beyond being a personal assistant.
Padilla is aware of being a bodyman. He started as one for Senator Dianne Feinstein. I first met Padilla when he was a young staffer in the later part of the 1990’s while I was working on the movement to separate the San Fernando Valley the city from Los Angeles. He is from San Fernando Valley area of Pacoima and had high interest in the issue. He was clearly ambitious and self-confident. Soon after, in 1999, at age 26 he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He quickly moved up the political ladder becoming the LA City Council President. He then was elected to the California State Senate in 2006. His next move was to launch a campaign to become California Secretary of State in 2014, which he won. In 2021, with the support of former Senator Dianne Feinstein, he replaced Kamala Harris as a U.S. Senator when she became Vice-President in 2021. He easily won election to the U.S. Senate in 2022 in this one-party state.
The encounter could have gone one of two ways, neither of which Padilla decided upon. First, if he did have a staff person with him, he could have sent the staff person to the press briefing with the proper identification. The person could have asked to meet with one of Noem’s staff for the purpose of setting up an impromptu meeting between the two. Short of Noem having a plane to catch, I am confident she would have accommodated the Senator.
Second, if he did not have a staff person, he could have shown up at the door and spoken to someone. He could have identified himself cordially and asked to meet with the head of the security detail. That person would have certainly met with Padilla where he could have appropriately asked the head of the security detail to allow him in the room for the purpose of joining the briefing and respectfully asking a question.
A firm handshake, please and thank you, and acting respectfully always work. Padilla had no interest in that. It appears he was interested in creating a spectacle. Even though he has been a U.S. senator for four years now he does not seem to understand he has an obligation to act in a highly professional manner whenever he is in public. He not only represents his state, but he also represents the United States of America.
Punchbowl News, a well-known news site, was still pitching the distortion this past Saturday. They wrote, “So the California Democrat walked in and interrupted the event by shouting a question at Noem. Federal law enforcement officers immediately grabbed Padilla and forcibly removed him from the room even as he was identifying himself as a U.S. senator. Padilla, a well-known figure in LA and across California, was then thrown to the ground and handcuffed. “
The problem is he is not well known except in political circles and the community from which he came. Politicos like me know who he is, but most Californians could not pick him out of a line-up. Why would Secret Service people know what he looks like? A guy comes pushing his way into an event and claims he is someone important. Oh my, that never happened before. And then there is the question that Punchbowl does not ask – why is a U.S. senator shouting a question at a cabinet secretary.? The press does not even hint at a lack of decorum.
It is bad enough when ordinary citizens act like this. The behavior of Padilla and previously Congresswoman LaMonica McIver is a frontal assault on our government. When the public from all political bents want our leaders to tone down the rhetoric, actions like these are even more reprehensible than in normal times.
Really, Alex, you are better than this and you should apologize to the Secretary, her security people and, most importantly, the American people.
