Acting Ranking Member Lynch on the Physical Assault of U.S. Senator Padilla by Sec. Noem’s Security Detail

Washington, D.C. (June 12, 2025)— As Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform defended President Trump’s use of the military against the people of Los Angeles, the Administration’s cruel and illegal mass deportation operations, and the President’s attempts to seize and consolidate power, Secretary Noem’s security detail tackled and handcuffed U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) for attempting to ask the Secretary a question. 

Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Acting Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, entered images of Sen. Padilla’s assault into the record during the hearing and released the following statement:

“Today in Trump’s America, there are National Guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles, deployed there by a President set on inflaming tensions and stoking violence to suit his own agenda.  President Trump is deploying the Marines into American communities, turning neighborhoods into active military zones.  Masked agents are disappearing family members and neighbors off the streets and hunting people at their place of work.  U.S. citizen children are being put on planes and ejected from their home country.  Today, a U.S. Senator was tackled to the ground and handcuffed for questioning the Administration’s barbaric and illegal actions in the state he represents.

“This is what Republicans are attempting to defend and — even worse —normalize. 

“Donald Trump is on an illegal spree to seize power, and it won’t stop in Los Angeles.  This Administration wants to decide who gets to keep their rights and who doesn’t — based on the color of your skin, who you voted for, or where you were born.  That is unAmerican and should be denounced by any elected leader who has sworn an oath to defend the constitution.”