Congressman Jared Golden broke with the Democratic Party to publicly chastise fellow lawmaker Alex Padilla, who was arrested Thursday while attempting to question Kristi Noem during a press conference in California.
While some lawmakers in his party bought liability insurance after California Senator Padilla was manhandled by federal agents, Golden, a centrist Democrat representing Maine, parroted what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said about the incident.
"I think that it's never good when a senator or member of Congress gets roughed up by law enforcement," Padilla told Axios outside the Capitol on Thursday before adding, "I don't think politics as theater is what our job is here."
Padilla, who became the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 2022, attempted to question Secretary of Homeland Security Noem during an immigration press conference at the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles. Despite repeatedly identifying himself and stating his credentials, he was tackled to the ground and handcuffed. Padilla was later granted a 15-minute conversation with Noem.
"Storming into the FBI headquarters and trying to break up a press conference and rushing on a [Cabinet] secretary is not really the job of an elected official," Golden stated.
The Moderate Democrat conceded, however, that the federal agents' response was out of line, clarifying that he was "not in any way saying that means law enforcement should be slamming people around."
DHS has shared numerous social media updates regarding Padilla's arrest; the first of which, like Golden, admonished Senator Padilla for choosing "disrespectful political theatre" and interrupting the "live press conference without identifying himself," which video evidence proved was not the case.
Originally published on Latin Times
