{"id":1542262,"date":"2025-06-17T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1542262"},"modified":"2025-06-17T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T23:00:00","slug":"secret-service-followed-protocol-in-padilla-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/secret-service-followed-protocol-in-padilla-incident\/1542262\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Service Followed Protocol In Padilla Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secret Service Followed Protocol In Padilla Incident<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

California Sen. Alex Padilla is getting plenty of mileage out of his scuffle with the Secret Service and federal authorities in Los Angeles Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Padilla\u2019s Senate and campaign X.com accounts posted a total of seven outraged videos in the first 24 hours after the altercation.<\/p>\n

Viral videos of the incident show a Secret Service agent dragging a fuming Padilla out of a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,<\/strong> and he identifies himself as a senator only as he\u2019s being pushed out the door. The agent then forces Padilla to the ground, while two agents handcuff him.<\/p>\n

Padilla, however, wasn\u2019t arrested.<\/strong> Within the hour, agents released him with no charges.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Democratic members of Congress then jumped to Padilla\u2019s defense, denouncing the action while casting the Secret Service and FBI agents involved as an extension of what they labeled as President Trump\u2019s totalitarian police state.<\/p>\n

Nothing to see here, just Alex Padilla pushing and shoving law enforcement officers as he tries to force his way up to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. When you disobey law enforcement, don\u2019t be surprised if they put you on the ground and cuff you.<\/p>\n

No one is above the law!! pic.twitter.com\/JifCeuJhe9<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 12, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Sen. Schumer called the Secret Service\u2019s use of force \u201ccruel and unacceptable.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a deliberate attempt to intimidate an elected official whose only offense is standing up for the voiceless,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just about Sen. Padilla, it\u2019s about every person who dares to speak truth to power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans and conservative commentators countered that it was all a big publicity stunt and noted that a Padilla staffer filmed the tussle and then quickly distributed it to the media in the room.<\/p>\n

Alex Padilla cries talking about the experience of being detained after disrupting Sec. Noem\u2019s press conference<\/p>\n

pic.twitter.com\/xrMhRiHdI9<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Defiant L\u2019s (@DefiantLs) June 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSen. Padilla didn\u2019t want answers \u2013 he wanted airtime<\/strong>,\u201d Rep. Byron Donalds said on Fox News Thursday night. \u201cShoving past security for a viral moment is a stunt, not leadership. If he cared about solutions, he\u2019d have asked for a meeting. But like most Democrats, he just wants the spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Padilla is an embarrassment to California,\u201d said Steve Hilton, who is running for governor in California as a Republican. \u201cHe\u2019s a complete nonentity. That\u2019s why they didn\u2019t recognize him \u2026 [he has] zero accomplishments and now this pathetic stunt as his only claim to fame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, an ardent Trump critic, condemned Padilla\u2019s treatment as \u201cshocking at every level\u201d and \u201cnot the America I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secret Service experts argue nothing could be further from the truth<\/strong> \u2013 that the agent was simply following normal protocol. Padilla, they said, actually received preferential treatment by not being arrested and jailed for his menacing display. The Secret Service agent warned Padilla, whom agents did not recognize as a senator and who wasn\u2019t wearing his Senate pin, to back away from Noem and then forcibly removed him when he ignored their entreaties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can represent this however they want, but those agents made the right decision to get him out of the room<\/strong>,\u201d Charles Marino, a former Secret Service agent told RealClearPolitics. \u201cHe did not have a congressional pin on, he was yelling and closing distance very quickly to make it to the front of the room to confront Noem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, he\u2019s not above the law. Anyone taking those actions would been treated far worse \u2013 they would have been arrested and been forced to spend some time in jail,\u201d Marino said. \u201cWho was escalating the situation? When you look at Padilla\u2019s action, taken in totality, the agents had no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of dragging him to a cell, federal agents released the senator after the incident.<\/strong> Then Noem met with Padilla for 15 minutes and gave him her cell phone number to discuss matters further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably disagree on 90% of the topics, but we agreed to exchange phone numbers and continue to talk \u2013 that is the way it should be in this country,\u201d Noem told Fox News Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Homeland Security Department issued a statement Thursday defending the federal agents\u2019 actions, arguing that Padilla chose \u201cdisrespectful political theater\u201d over constructive congressional oversight.<\/p>\n

Padilla, the agency said, \u201cinterrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers\u2019 repeated commands,\u201d the department added.<\/strong> \u201c@Secret Service thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other Secret Service sources backed up Marino\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny sudden movement towards a protectee that feels threatening, especially when that person has not been identified, the policy is 100% to prevent further escalation or movement toward Noem,\u201d said a source in the Secret Service community. \u201cWe would have done the same thing for anyone threatening [former DHS Secretary] Mayorkas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the situation escalated very quickly, the agent still followed the basic rules of engagement for law enforcement, the source asserted. Agents and officers first ask a person to move away from the protectee, then they tell them firmly to move away, and if those warnings aren\u2019t abided, then they can use physical force to move the threatening person away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty common law enforcement way of relaying information and taking action, because emotions can get the best of people, and agents are forced to err on the side of protection,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

After the two assassination attempts against Trump, agents are highly attuned to aggressive behavior and working to ensure they\u2019re not involved in any security lapses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day and age, you can see what a split-second hesitate could result in<\/strong>,\u201d one former agent remarked. \u201cCould you imagine if the agent didn\u2019t respond, and Padilla got on the stage and hit [Noem]?\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency has been knocked around for months for the egregious security failures in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 and then nearly two months later during another close call against Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course.<\/p>\n

And just because it\u2019s Padilla who was attending a press conference doesn\u2019t mean assaults against a Cabinet secretary or president are unlikely to occur. During a December 2008 press conference in Iraq, an Iraqi journalist threw both of his shoes at former President George W. Bush in a pique of outrage.<\/p>\n

Secret Service agents with their zero-fail mission have to be poised to respond to all types of unexpected threats, which sometimes come with no warning at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 2005, during Bush\u2019s visit to the country of Georgia, a man attempted to assassinate Bush and then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili by throwing a hand grenade at both of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, we don\u2019t always know who you are if you\u2019re not wearing your [congressional] pin,\u201d the source said. \u201cYou\u2019re coming at [Noem] in an aggressive manner, and you didn\u2019t heed our warnings to stop. If you get into the buffer zone, we have to take you down. All public officials should know, and I would hope understand, that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 06\/17\/2025 – 15:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/secret-service-followed-protocol-padilla-incident<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secret Service Followed Protocol In Padilla Incident Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics, California Sen. Alex Padilla is getting plenty of mileage out of his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1542263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1542263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}