Senator Alex Padilla has called out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s spin about the news conference chaos that landed him in handcuffs.
Noem—nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her love of cosplaying as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent for immigration raids, among other bizarre publicity stunts—had claimed that Padilla had failed to identify himself and said he “lunged” at the podium, after which he was forcibly removed and arrested. Not so, Padilla said in an interview with Pod Save America released Friday.
“Anybody who’s seen the video knows I repeatedly introduced myself,” Padilla said. “They knew who I was. I was not lunging at the secretary.”
Padilla said that not only had he introduced himself, he was escorted in by FBI and National Guard personnel and was wearing a U.S. Senate polo. Video of the altercation backs up his claims.
Padilla, 51, also refuted Noem’s claim on Fox News that he “burst” into the briefing room to interrupt her.
Instead, Padilla said that he was escorted into Noem’s briefing by an FBI agent and a National Guardsman, and that he initially stood quietly in the back. He claimed that Noem’s rhetoric about demonstrations in Los Angeles eventually became “too much” for him, so he walked forward and began asking a question to call her out.
“They claim that Donald Trump and Secretary Noem are here to ‘liberate the people of Los Angeles’ from the governor and from the mayor,” he said, referencing Noem’s statement from the podium. “That’s when I spoke up, right? I had a question to ask. [I] want to call them out on their misinformation.”
That is starkly different from how Noem described the ordeal on Thursday evening.
“This man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped,” she told Fox News. “He did not identify himself and was removed from the room. So, as soon as he identified himself, appropriate actions were taken.”
🚨 #BREAKING @SenAlexPadilla tries to interrupt a press conference by @DHSgov Sec @KristiNoem and he’s forcibly removed. California’s senior U.S. Senator was handcuffed and detained. Video from @AlexPadilla4CA’s staff 🚨 pic.twitter.com/PXfszkBXxo
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 12, 2025
A clip shared by a Padilla staff member showed that 20 seconds passed between him identifying himself as a senator and Noem’s security detail ordering him to lie on his stomach so he could be put in handcuffs.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast regarding Padilla’s latest remarks.
Padilla alleged that the Trump administration has lied about what happened in the news conference encounter, just as it has inflated the severity of anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles, his hometown.
“I’m not hearing anyone talk about being scared of the protests or the protesters,” he told Pod Save America, “But I’m hearing, I personally know people, and I have a lot of friends, who are terrified about the impact ICE is having on communities.”
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