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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
New: California Alex Padilla Forced To The Ground & Handcuffed During DHS News Conference In Los Angeles; Now: Judge Hears Arguments On Newsom's Lawsuit Seeking To Limit Use Of National Guard & Marines In Los Angeles. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired June 12, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: -- handcuffed, not detained, not arrested.
[16:00:02]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yeah. Important to point out, too, in her description, she suggests that he's lunging for the podium. I'm not sure he got close to the podium just based on that angle of the footage.
Nevertheless, this obviously comes at a sensitive time, not only for southern California, but for the country, as we are watching these protests unfold in city after city, with more expected this weekend.
Obviously, a lot to cover.
THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT is going to do just that in only a few seconds.
Thanks for joining us this afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right. We have been covering breaking news all afternoon. That dramatic showdown in Los Angeles, a senator handcuffed.
Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA.
At this hour, we're getting new details on the confrontation between California Senator Alex Padilla and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
I want to show you what sparked this incident. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: The officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city. (CROSSTALK)
NOEM: So I want to say thank you to every single person that has been able to do this. Also, I want to talk specifically to the rioters and to the politicians in Los Angeles --
SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): -- half a dozen other criminals that are rotating on your -- on your --
NOEM: I also want to talk about specifically --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So that was the moment. And you could hear the sound of the senator's voice there. You could see she was holding her press conference. You could see what happened to him.
We have other angles of that as well, and more showing what plays out later. The video that we're going to show you next. It was released by her office. And again, it shows an alternate angle.
Senator Padilla's office says that after he was removed, he was forced to the ground and handcuffed, though he was not arrested.
Secretary Noem spoke to CNN shortly after this incident. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOEM: I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know who he was, and that he wanted to talk. His approach, you know, was something that I don't think was appropriate at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: L.A.'s mayor called the incident, quote, absolutely abhorrent and outrageous. She's planning to hold a press conference at the top of the hour.
Senator Padilla then spoke with reporters after this incident. This played out just moments ago. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PADILLA: If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. My panel is here. They're going to weigh in in just a moment. But we want to start with CNN's Stephanie Elam in L.A. We've got
Kristen Holmes outside the White House. CNN's security correspondent Josh Campbell standing by in L.A.
Stephanie, let me start with you. You were in the room when Senator Padilla was removed. We tried to show our viewers what you could see with the cameras.
Explain what it was like in the room.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Kasie, I can tell you that the press conference had already begun. And at that moment, the secretary was at the microphone. She was talking at that moment when we heard someone come in from the same side that we had all come in from off to our right.
And he's got a pretty powerful voice. And he came up to about the row where I was sitting, there were only a couple of rows in there and started talking in the middle of her, addressing the press that was lined up there. So, he knew he was coming into a press conference at that point. When the reaction happened, it was immediate that it seemed that hands were on him, pushing him back.
From what we understand, there were members of Noem's security detail. We understand that she's also said that she is, that they didn't have any idea that her team had no idea who the senator was when he started speaking, so they viewed him as a threat. I'd like to point out that we were inside of a federal building. So, you do have to go through screening to get through to get into the building. He was in there for a completely different reason. He said he had a different meeting.
But then we could see him getting pushed out of the door. He kept asking questions. He did say hands up, I think at one point saying, you know, he wasn't pushing back. His hands were up and it looked like he was going down as he was going through the door. I'm not sure that's when he actually was taken to the ground.
But we did see him walking around after, after we were leaving the press conference room and he was walking unencumbered by himself before he came down here to address the media.
[16:05:00]
It's also noteworthy that he sounded emotional when he was here, addressing the media with his statement and talking about how he felt and how if this is how they would treat a U.S. senator, how would they treat workers and they're going in to handle these raids.
I'd also like to mention that I asked the secretary how much of L.A. she has seen since she has been here. She said she was staying near downtown, and she saw the graffiti and the, you know, some of the destruction that has happened down there.
And I asked for her overall opinion of the city. She's like, well, don't you want a nice downtown? Was her response. But it seems like much of her time here. She says she's been to L.A. other times what's been downtown and not on the west side of L.A. where we are now, where it's very business as usual.
HUNT: All right. Stephanie Elam, thank you very much for that.
And of course, you know, we are continuing to bring in different angles of the video here.
But, Josh Campbell, you are a former FBI agent, and this took place in your old office. Now you can see the law enforcement response happen fairly quickly. I mean, to Stephanie's point, this is a federal building. You can't just wander in there necessarily.
What reporting do you have and how do you how should we, in your view, be analyzing how we're seeing these agents respond?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's easy to think about this as one incident, but actually from a law enforcement perspective, we're really looking at three separate incidents that happened within a short period of time.
First, you have the DHS secretary who was addressing the press. This was not a Q&A period. And she's interrupted. She's interrupted by someone who is speaking very loudly. And so, her security detail confronts what we obviously now know to be the senator.
And at that point, he is now going to be escorted out. You can't interrupt something like that that's already in progress without having those consequences.
But the second incident, in my view, happens the moment as officers are trying to lead him out. He then turns and walks back towards kind of into those agents at that point, from a security detail perspective, that were taking this person out against their will. Weve asked the person and again, this is all happening very quickly. But the moment he then turns into them, they realize this is not someone who is going to comply.
But it's the third incident. So outside in the hallway, outside from where the press conference was happening, you actually see the senator eventually handcuffed on the ground. Now, there will be questions raised about those kinds of tactics. Where there are other options that are available to the federal agents as well as the FBI police officer there who is responsible for security in that FBI building? What they do is they actually order him to his knees and then quickly shove him down to the ground where he is, then handcuffed.
So again, you're in a federal building. People are screened for weapons. Him having a gun or some type of device like that would not be a concern for those officers. So, there will be a big question about the tactics that were used by the officers as they put handcuffs on him.
But final point I'll note, I know we are in a politically charged climate, but from a law enforcement perspective, this was neither the fault nor the responsibility of DHS Secretary Noem. She's in the middle of a press conference. Theres someone who interrupts and then makes it clear by his movements that he is not going to comply. He's taken out.
Again, I don't think any of that was her responsibility. I am learning from a law enforcement source that no charges are planned against the senator, Kasie.
HUNT: Important to note that.
I mean, Josh, I guess the question I have, I mean, he's, you know, he's yelling, you know, I'm a U.S. senator, right? Like I'm Senator Padilla, if you are a law enforcement officer in this situation and you're in a federal building and this person is saying this to you, I guess that's kind of where I'm tripping because we're now seeing and our viewers are getting a chance to see this for the first time.
We just got this video clear through, through our system. The fact that this has happened, he's been -- he's out of the room with the secretary, right. And they're pushing him to the ground. And he's saying this.
I mean, you know, I don't want to make assumptions because you're someone who's been in this position. I have never, of course, been in the position to be one of these security officers. But would you have expected them to not react to him identifying himself as he did?
CAMPBELL: Well, two things. So, in the room itself, when he identifies himself as a senator, I don't think that made any difference to the agents. In fact, that would have been special treatment for him if they had allowed him to continue to interrupt, you know, very loudly this press conference. So there I don't think it made a difference.
But to your point, outside the room -- sure. I mean, I think that is something that is certainly a factor. Once he's identifying himself, they know that he's not a threat. That doesn't mean that they don't have the right to throw him out of the building, metaphorically speaking, because he was there, you know, at that point they would determine, okay, you are here in an unauthorized fashion.
But again, that did raise questions whenever you actually see them, putting him on his knees and then shoving them onto the ground at that point, knowing who they were dealing with.
[16:10:00]
And for that matter, I think that that kind of -- those kind of tactics may be de-escalating would be used on anyone, not just a United States senator.
Again, the question is, is this person a threat in front of me? And then whats the next plan? How are we going to get this individual out of there? Could they have deescalated it?
Did they have to go straight to shoving him on the ground? I don't think so. But again, I think this will be reviewed.
HUNT: Yeah. I mean I would just, you know, again, you're the expert as the former law enforcement, I've covered so many press conferences on capitol hill that have been interrupted in various shapes, ways and forms that obviously have been handled in, you know, certainly with tactics that were considerably less escalatory than the ones that we saw play out here.
Josh, thank you. I really, really appreciate your reporting.
Manu Raju is also with us from the Hill.
And, Manu, let me play what the senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on the senate floor a little while ago. And then we'll talk about it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Anyone who looks at it turns -- it turns anyone -- anyone who looks at this, it will turn their stomach to look at this video and see what happened, reeks -- reeks of totalitarianism. This is not what democracies do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Manu, we've obviously seen a number of intense reactions from Senator Padilla's colleagues in the Senate. And I know you also spoke to Senator Schiff, his co-senator from California. What did he say?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this has been a reaction mostly along party lines. Even some Republicans who have raised concerns. But for the most part, Democrats are the ones condemning what happened here, including Adam Schiff.
I want you to listen to what Adam Schiff had to say, but also the Republican majority leader in the United States House, Steve Scalise, who offered criticism -- but criticism at Alex Padilla.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): To be treated the way he was to be, essentially brought to the ground and shackled after identifying himself is a disgraceful action. Kristi Noem should never have been appointed to that office. She should resign from that office. There ought to be an investigation of the conduct of those officers.
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): I'm not sure why he wasn't, you're voting, but you know, Kristi's been trying to do her job and you've had a number of people in the Democrat Party trying to stop ICE agents from doing their job.
The fact that he's in California and not in D.C., while the Senate's voting means he's not as concerned about doing his job here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: We have yet to hear from the speaker of the House, mike Johnson. We do expect him to talk to reporters here in just a matter of minutes. We'll see where he has to say. Some Republicans who have raised concerns, including some of the more moderate Republican senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said it is horrible. It is shocking at every level. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and other moderate Republican senator said, quote, she said it is very disturbing. She also said she does not know what preceded it.
The Republican majority leader in the United States Senate, John Thune, said he needed to look at this, get more details before he could weigh in more fully.
But then the John Barrasso, who's the number two Senate Republican, told reporters that, quote, that Padilla has a responsibility to his constituents to show up to work, not make a spectacle of himself.
So you're getting the sense that this is mostly going to come down along party lines. Probably most Republicans going to side with the White House's version of what happened here, not what happened to Padilla based on that video -- Kasie.
HUNT: It seems like it's the story of the times that we live in. Still pretty remarkable considering -- I mean, Manu, you and I both covered Capitol Hill for a long enough to remember when, you know, defending the institution itself and the rights of fellow senators was often the most important thing, regardless of party lines.
Kristen Holmes, what are you hearing at this point from the administration?
Kristi Noem has obviously the Department of Homeland Security Secretary has spoken publicly to reporters generally. She did an interview on Fox News as well. She seems to be characterizing it in a very different way, obviously, than Senator Padilla.
What are we hearing?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Kasie.
In just a moment ago, just since were at the White House. And of course, we always want to know where their heads are at when it comes to a member of the administration. We just heard from Stephen Chung, who posted on X basically having Kristi Noem's back saying that this was a freak out on the part of Senator Padilla and saying shows the public what a complete lunatic Padilla is by rushing towards Secretary Noem and disturbing the informative press conference. So clearly there, they're going to have Noem's back.
And I have heard from a number of administration officials who say they don't believe that this was her fault, that they believe that she was just standing there, that she had nothing to do with what that security team did there on the ground. As josh mentioned, this was her detail, her detail that she travels with. Now she did speak to the press after this happened, saying that she wished that Padilla had identified himself. Say again that that no one in the room knew who he was. And then talking about their 15-minute meeting after this happened, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOEM: We had a great conversation, sat down and talked for 10, 15 minutes about operations in L.A., some activities of the Department of Homeland Security.
[16:15:06]
And so, I thought it was very productive. And I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk. His approach, you know, was something that I don't think was appropriate at all. But the conversation was great, and we're going to continue to communicate. We exchanged phone numbers, and we're going to continue to talk on ways we can communicate better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, of course, it should be noted that this administration is not really one that is known to reach across the aisle. So this idea that if he just reached out, maybe they could have had a meeting remains to be seen. But as Manu said, this really seems to be falling along party lines. We have seen Donald Trump's advisers, allies all over social media calling this political theater, saying that he was out of control. Likely this is where this is going to fall.
HUNT: All right. Kristen Holmes, Stephanie Elam, Josh Campbell, Manu Raju, thanks to all of you very much. Really appreciate it.
And our panel is here now to talk more about this. CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein, the host of "The Chuck Toddcast", Chuck Todd, Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod, and former senior adviser to the Trump 2024 campaign, Bryan Lanza. Also joining us, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.
Thank you all for being here.
Chuck Todd, I want to start with you.
This -- this is very dramatic video. And we can bring it up and show it. Really, it's the moments after he leaves the room where he is kind of shoved to the ground.
You know, I think it is worth noting that the interruption of press conferences on the part of, you know, of the public officials are giving is honestly very normal, like it happens all the time. In this case, it's a, you know, official building. It's not, you know, a street. The environment is relatively contained. As Josh Campbell noted, you know, the officers would know the people would have been screened for weapons before coming in.
This seems to me to really underscore just how tense everything is right now and how high the stakes are.
CHUCK TODD, HOST, "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": And I think that that's the -- look, we're here. That looked like an overreaction, but we're not there. And in fairness to the security detail, I'm -- I, you know, who knows how many threats that maybe they were dealing with incoming on her.
HUNT: Right. Let me press pause on you for one second, Chuck. The speaker of the House is apparently talking about this. Let's listen.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: And I think --
REPORTER: -- oversight, Mr. Speaker.
JOHNSON: That's oversight -- charging a cabinet secretary in a in a press conference. I beg to differ. I think that people do as well. I think those actions speak for themselves.
REPORTER: Do you have anything to say about lowering the temperature in the country right now. What would you say?
JOHNSON: You know, Scott, I have -- I have things to say about lowering the temperature all the time. I am very consistent in this. We have been trying to do this since I was handed the gavel in, before. I founded the Honor and Civility Caucus in the Congress, for crying out loud when I got here in 2017.
I think that we should act according to our offices. We have a duty and a responsibility to set a tone and example in our actions, and I encourage every member of this body to do it in the House and Senate. We have to turn the temperature down.
We need to be on the side of the rule of law. We need to be on the side of law and order. We need to be on the side of calm and not chaos. And when members go into these settings and act this way, that when they push law enforcement agents around, when they storm cabinet secretaries in a press conference, I think it is wildly inappropriate behavior. And I think it sets a terrible message and tone for the rest of the country. Yes.
REPORTER: Will there be an investigation? Will there be a House investigation?
JOHNSON: This is a Senate side issue, but I certainly hope that behavior is not repeated over here. We already --
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: I am, yes.
REPORTER: All members, whether they be in the House or Senate. You're the speaker of the House.
JOHNSON: Yes.
REPORTER: The constitutional officer of this branch.
JOHNSON: Yeah. And what of it? I mean --
REPORTER: The idea that the -- you said this is a Senate issue. This isn't -- I mean, these are members of Congress. JOHNSON: I mean, yeah, but the Senate does its disciplinary actions
over there and we do ours over here. We have a certain set of measures, as you all know, and it ranges from censure to removal from committees to ultimately expulsion from the body.
REPORTER: And do you support that for the senator?
JOHNSON: It's not my decision to make. I'm not in that chamber. But I do think that it merits an immediate attention by their colleagues over there and that they -- I think that that behavior, at a minimum, is it rises to the level of a censure. I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we are going to do. That's not how we're going to act. We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging cabinet secretaries.
We got to do better, and I hope that we will. But I want to say this is a good day for the House chamber. This -- the first rescissions package has now passed through the House. I expect it will pass through the Senate. I expect our One Big, Beautiful Bill will continue to be processed as it is, and it will get it back and get it done on a on a tight schedule.
I'm still trying to meet our July 4th deadline so we can have a celebration on independence day and having good legislation passed will put everybody better --
HUNT: You're listening to Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, saying that what Senator Padilla did was wildly inappropriate, and, Chuck Todd, suggesting that he be formally punished by the Senate.
TODD: That seemed like an escalation, that that sort of surprising there.
Look, the fact that there was -- I mean, it is, like I said, we don't know what kind of threats they're dealing with.
[16:20:01]
This is a tense situation down in L.A. and for all we know, there were a lot of threats coming in at the Homeland Security.
So I don't want to belittle the reaction of the security detail, but it does look extreme. And that's not a good look, especially to a Latino senator at a time when there's a lot of sensitivities in that -- in that community right now.
So, I am surprised that already people here in Washington, on the right side of the aisle here want to escalate this even more. I'm not sure that that's frankly, I don't obviously, it's not good for the country. I don't think that's good politics either, for what it's worth. Like what? De-escalatory behavior here is also good politics here.
And so, I do think that that trying to dunk on this situation, which is what the White House seems to be doing, and a little bit of what the speaker did there, I don't think that's good politics. We could -- we could question, look, he went in there and he was disruptive. He was interrupting.
But it does feel like there was an overreaction to that. And an extreme overreaction from the speaker and Mr. Trump.
HUNT: Well, and so what I'm what were trying to show everyone here. And again, these angles were trying to show you different angles of how this actually played out because now you have each side characterizing it very differently, right? Senator Padilla saying he went into this, what was a press conference? He interrupted the secretary, which he acknowledges. He says that she hasn't answered his other questions, he's trying to --
TODD: His hands up the whole time.
HUNT: Yes. So then what happens, and we can replay this kind of from the beginning here, and to characterize -- to help us understand what Noem is saying, she says he lunged at the podium, right? She is using the word lunge.
So we're going to try to show you exactly what happened here. And we kind of missed the very top of that. I'm sure we can continue to work on it, but you can see that when they say, put your hands up, he does put them up in front of him. He does. As Josh Campbell noted in his reporting, try to walk forward. Eventually he walks out. He continues to have his hands in the air. And then you see the security team put him down on the ground there.
And I mean, Ron Brownstein, honestly, the way that I'm listening to Mike Johnson, the speaker, and these other Republicans, including Kristi Noem, who was on Fox saying this is they're trying to right the narrative. What they say happened that he was an aggressor. He was lunging at her. And clearly the senator trying to say something else.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: By the time they by the time they handcuff him, they know he's a U.S. senator. By the time his face is on the ground, and it (INAUDIBLE) the tape this like all day, you know?
But it is -- it is a mistake to view this in isolation. I mean, they are detaining a U.S. senator after the Trump administration has arrested a mayor, a judge in Milwaukee, a U.S. representative in New Jersey, a labor leader in California. They have federalized the National Guard over the objection of a Democratic governor for the first time since the civil rights era, when governors were actively impeding the enforcement of federal law in seven minutes and 24 seconds, they're going to be in federal court arguing they have the authority without invoking the Insurrection Act to send convoys of marines to accompany ICE agents into American neighborhoods.
And Kristi Noem is talking about liberating, her -- her word, liberate Los Angeles from its leadership, all of which I think adds up to a -- as I wrote this week, they do not view blue states and cities and their representatives as legitimate partners in governing what Madison called our compound republic. They view them as hostile territory to be subdued, and we are seeing that taken more literally.
I mean, I was talking about mostly about policy, but now with the deployment of the guard, the various arrests of Democratic officials, the detaining of a U.S. senator in this way, whatever the immediate provocation, they knew he was a senator when they handcuffed him.
HUNT: All right. I want the other side of the table to weigh in in just a second, but I want to first go to the California attorney general, a Democrat, Rob Bonta.
Mr. Attorney General, I'm very grateful to have you here today. I'd like to start, of course, with your reaction to what you saw happen to California Senator Alex Padilla today.
ROB BONTA (D), CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be with you.
What happened to U.S. Senator Padilla was shameful, and unacceptable and a disgrace. And it didn't need to happen. He's a sitting U.S. senator, and I believe he was mistreated.
HUNT: Sir, Republicans are saying he did things such as lunge at the secretary. They are saying that interrupting her press conference was an inappropriate way for the senator to act. Do you agree with that?
BONTA: They used words like lunge and charge. He's not an animal. He's a U.S. senator and a very calm and deliberative U.S. senator who I know. And he is representing his constituents.
[16:25:01]
It is very appropriate, as a U.S. senator to have questions for Secretary Noem and to pose those questions. In fact, I have questions for her as well, including what she's referring to when she's talking about liberating the city of Los Angeles from socialist forces. And the mayor and the governor. That's not even what the U.S. military says that they're there for.
So, this -- this broadening of what's happening in L.A., it poses a lot of questions. And I'm sure the U.S. senator had questions. And we're going to be getting answers to our questions now in court, because we believe that the deployment of the national guard, as well as the mobilization of the Marines is unlawful.
There's no lawful authority that the president has exercised here. He's overstepped by a mile. He's engaged in an unlawful power grab, and we're going to court to stop him today.
HUNT: So, on the question of the use of federal -- of the United States military, the Defense Department Secretary, Pete Hegseth, was pressed by members of Congress at a hearing today about whether the Department of Defense would abide by a court ruling saying that those troops could not be deployed. And he did not answer the question, how do you respond to Secretary Hegseth?
BONTA: Shocking, but not surprising. This is also the same Secretary Hegseth, who said he believed an invasion and a rebellion and the inability of the federal government to execute the U.S. laws were all present in L.A. when absolutely none of them are president -- or present. It is gaslighting of the highest order, this sort of production of a fiction that is has nothing close to resemblance with reality, and very disturbing, but also not inconsistent from this administration to not be clear that they will comply with court orders, which is what we do in the United States of America. We follow court orders.
And his inability to make it clear that the federal government will do that here is very disturbing and very dangerous, although not surprising.
HUNT: Sir, speaking of following court orders, let me ask you if, in fact, the court rules against you and rules that the Trump administration is acting lawfully and allows it to proceed, what steps are then available to you? What do you plan to do in that event?
BONTA: So first, I'll say we follow court orders. We comply with court orders. That's what we do in America. And we will do that.
We are having our motion for a temporary restraining order heard today. And so the ruling will be on that order, and that order alone. We may still wish to bring a motion for a preliminary injunction. We may still wish to pursue our case.
Our case doesn't end today no matter what the order is. But we believe that the facts and law are in our favor, that the there is no invasion, rebellion, inability to execute the U.S. laws. The governor wasn't consulted. None of the elements upon which the Trump administration relies are present. And the Posse Comitatus Act is the law of the United States of America and the Marines, as a military entity, cannot be engaged in civilian law enforcement.
It's pretty clear. It's pretty plain. So, we believe we will secure a restraining order today.
HUNT: Sir, I do want to circle back to what we've been watching on our screens, which is, of course, these very tense moments between California Secretary Padilla and the security detail for Kristi Noem.
What I would like to ask you about is the conduct of those agents, not even right here in the room, but after they have left the room and you see them press Mr. Padilla to the ground after he's identified himself as a United States senator.
Do you believe that those security officers acted correctly?
BONTA: I think it's an overreaction. As I mentioned, it's unacceptable and it's a disgrace. We have U.S. Senator Padilla. He's got his hands up. He's complying. He's talking to them.
The fact that with his hands up and outside of the room now, they felt a need to forcibly take him down to the ground and put his arms behind his back and handcuff him is just an unnecessary overreaction. Secretary Noem should be talking to the U.S. senator. HUNT: She did.
BONTA: She said, hey --
HUNT: She did meet with him afterwards --
BONTA: I'll talk to you for a few minutes afterwards. And -- but she didn't say it then. And the force that was used was unnecessary.
So, this was avoidable and preventable. Unnecessary. It was disgraceful and unacceptable and wrong.
HUNT: Sir, I think I'll just end our conversation by asking you what's it going to take to walk back from this ledge that we clearly are on in California right now?
[16:30:05]
BONTA: Trump following the damn law. It's really simple. Follow the rule of law. Follow the laws of our nation, follow the U.S. Constitution. That is not a lot to ask of the president of the United States and the most powerful elected position, not just in our country, but in the world.
And we will be immovable and resolute and absolutely committed and unapologetic to holding him accountable to following the law. He can do a lot of things in the vast authority that actually exists within the presidency, but he cannot do unlawful things, and we will not let him. The president should be following the law. Not a lot to ask that a president do that, but he has a very difficult time with it.
Thus, we've sued him 25 times in 20 weeks, more than once a week, because that's how blatantly and brazenly, consistently and frequently he has violated the law and trampled over our Constitution. And we will continue to hold him accountable and meet him in court and block his unlawful actions each and every time he does it. But if he decided to follow the law, we don't want to sue him. We want a president who follows the law and complies with the Constitution. So that would be a great first step to pull us back from the ledge, to have the president follow the law.
HUNT: All right. Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta, very grateful for your time today, sir. Thank you very much.
BONTA: Grateful for yours. Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, we're going to have more on multiple breaking news stories. Of course, this incident involving Senator Alex Padilla, the court hearing happening right now over President Trump's troop deployment. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:36:58]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOEM: This man burst into a room, started advancing towards the podium, interrupting an opening statement, elevating his voice, shouting questions. People tried to stop him from interrupting the press conference. He refused and continued to lunge towards the podium. And that is when he was removed from the room.
So the way that he acted was completely inappropriate. It wasn't becoming a U.S. senator or a public official, and perhaps he wanted the scene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaking with Fox News after what played out at a planned news conference with the California Senator Alex Padilla, she called his behavior inappropriate and interrupting her. She also said that he was lunging at the podium. That's the word that she used.
Now, what you didn't see in the video that Fox was playing alongside of Kristi Noem was what happened after he was pressed through those doors, when he was pressed down to the ground by those officers, as he was saying, "I'm California Senator Alex Padilla".
Our panel is back. We're also joined by CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.
And, Elie, I do want to start with you on this for a little bit of perspective, because, you know, as we've been discussing here, press conferences get interrupted a lot. Public officials are protected by security details. Security details do step in in various ways when there are people who are, you know, they're not reporters who have, you know, come in there to ask questions of the official.
Obviously, once he starts pressing back against the officers, that's something that officers would react to. However, then you see what happens in the hallway.
What is standing out to you here in terms of the conduct across the board?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Kasie, I think some of what we saw from DHS there was wrong, but certainly not all of it. So, it's interesting to me. Let's look at DHS actual official public statements they released after this incident.
So, first of all, DHS says in their statement, quote, Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater. That, to me is completely irrelevant. It's not the job of DHS or federal agents to enforce manners or political theater.
They then say, however, and this is interesting. At 2:52 p.m., Tricia McLaughlin, an official spokesperson for DHS said that Senator Padilla, quote, lunged at Secretary Noem. We just heard that from Secretary Noem. But three minutes later, at 2:55 p.m., DHS itself issued a public statement that does not include the language about lunging.
I don't see a lunge there, however, and this goes back to Josh Campbell's point earlier. There is a moment when Senator Padilla comes into this room. He gets to the top of that ramp. He's feet away from the secretary.
He has not yet at that point identified himself as a senator. He does that a little bit later. Those agents have every right and responsibility to physically block him, to keep him away and to remove him from the secretary, given what they knew at that moment.
All that said, what happens outside the room, the putting of the senator on his face, on the ground, handcuffing him behind his back, completely inappropriate, completely unwarranted. So there's blame, I think, to go around here.
HUNT: Bryan Lanza, let me go to you here. And you, of course, a resident of Los Angeles, along with Ron Brownstein. You grew up in L.A.
When you see this kind of play out -- I mean, again, we've been talking about this. Its just all so incredibly escalatory across the board. How do you think this situation was handled?
BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yeah. Listen, I'm going to agree with Josh. You know, your contributor here, the FBI contributor. He's, you know, obviously the first two actions of Padilla where Padilla himself, the secretary had nothing to do with it. Josh said she would not know they were following typical protocol.
And I'm going to defer to whatever law enforcement does when they take them into that room next door. I mean, secretary wasn't involved, but from what I understand from the people I've talked to, those are career DHS employees. So it's not -- they're not political appointees that are roughing up the senator.
These are career people who do their job. They take it seriously. They protect people, and they felt that was the necessary protocol to go.
It is escalatory. But this whole situation is just on this vortex of more and more escalation. You know, the senator didn't need to have this confrontation.
[16:40:02]
I'm not going to be surprised in probably 20 minutes, I'm going to see a fundraising text from senator saying, I need your help fighting back. Look what they did to me.
The whole theater of it is escalatory. He should have been here in Washington, D.C., with the rest of his senators doing D.C. business, instead he's breaking into a news conference, and I'm going to use Josh Campbell's words, aggressively push back. I'm sure if we look at the source, they'll say, lunge. But he clearly sought theatrics. He got it, and he got a response. HUNT: Adrienne Elrod, I want to let you weigh in, but I also just
want to read there's a new statement out from the FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. He says this, quote: With regard to the incident in L.A. this afternoon, the senator in question was not wearing a security pin and physically resisted law enforcement when confronted. Our FBI personnel acted completely appropriately while assisting Secret Service, and we are grateful for their professionalism and service.
I will say, Adrienne, that one of the things I was looking for when I first saw this video, all members of Congress, senators do wear a pin that identifies them to typically security in the Capitol, but that is something -- I mean, certainly, Kristi Noem, who served as a member of Congress, would have recognized the pin. You know, we can debate whether or not she should have recognized Padilla himself, kind of off the bat.
How are you looking at what is clearly, as we've been discussing?
ADRIENNE ELROD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I -- it's incredibly disturbing. And I think you look at -- you look at this coverage and you watch these videos and you said something earlier that really stuck with me throughout the show, which is I remember a time I've been in Washington for about 30 years, I remember a time when if a member of the of the Senate, regardless of political party, was attacked like this, everyone would come together and stand with him. We are not seeing this play out like that today by any stretch.
And sure, I mean, I don't want to get into, you know, whether law enforcement here, I mean, they're obviously their top job is to protect Kristi Noem. They maybe -- did not know that he was a senator. But I think that last video where you see him on the ground.
I mean, that felt very aggressive. And I think a lot of this is the, you know, reality that the Trump administration has put on, on some of the officials in the administration where, you know, they sort of create this atmosphere where you have to be aggressive, you have to employ these tactics.
And Chuck made a smart point earlier, too, about some of the, you know, the fact that the Latino, Hispanic community is under attack. And this is not a good look for Republicans or, frankly, any of the law enforcement here.
LANZA: Let's be clear, what happened in New Jersey with that member of Congress. She was indicted by her community. I remember, you know, being on being on panels like this and said when indictment from your community is a bad thing. She wasn't indicted by President Trump. She was indicted by a grand jury in her community.
Clearly, there's a path that the Democrats have chosen. See confrontation, seek escalation, seek media --
ELROD: And they're not seeking confrontation or escalation here. This is Senator Padilla, who is trying to represent his state.
LANZA: I know -- ELROD: He's trying to represent his community.
LANZA: I know Alex really well. Absolutely.
ELROD: He was under attack, and he was simply trying to get in front --
LANZA: He charged at a secretary --
(CROSSTALK)
ELROD: He was trying to have a conversation with her because she will not allow him. She will not meet with him. She met with him after he was attacked by her --
BROWNSTEIN: I mean, it would seem like a dividing line is not so much when he's in the room or out of the room. It's certainly if they don't know who he is and he's moving in any way toward the stage, it's appropriate, as you're saying, for them to block him from getting at her.
You can hear on the video very clearly, he says, I am U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. And they continue to, you know, treat, you know, lay hands on him, move him out, put him face down.
And I would say that you cannot do that in isolation. You have to do that as part of a continuum that has included multiple arrests in different locations of Democratic officials and union officials, and other actions that are basically designed to send a message to Democratic officials, blue states and cities that we are going to use any means necessary to bring you in line with what we want you to do.
TODD: Just very quickly. I actually think Secretary Noem lost some high ground by going on fox and sort of portraying, sort of getting involved. That's what you were criticizing about political theater. She's essentially going, no, no, no, no, watch my performance over here.
The better way for her to have responded and to have kept the high ground is like, I'm sorry this ever happened. I've had a conversation. Notice she didn't do that in that interview. In some ways, she's trying to play to that audience and say, hey, look at what happened to me. Look at these folks.
When the right move here would have been, I'm sorry that took place.
HUNT: She said that when she first come out and talk to reporters --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: The decision to go on Fox just there to essentially showcase what happened. Bryan, no offense about the political theater that is also political theater. And this is the larger issue here.
This is exactly what Stephen Miller wants it. He wants to bait the left into a confrontation, which is why they went to L.A. They're not going to many red states to go look at undocumented folks. They're --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: Please. There is -- they did go to Omaha and a meatpacking plant and went after people that apparently were following the law.
But the point is, is that they're specifically trying to have a confrontation. They're not interested in solving the problem. They're looking for political theater. And she -- what she did.
(CROSSTALK)
LANZA: -- to ignore your blue states who are --
TODD: I didn't say ignore it.
[16:45:00]
It's just protocol. No, I did not say that.
LANZA: What's the protocol then?
TODD: Deal with the governor, deal with the mayor and let them stop you.
LANZA: A sanctuary city who said we're not going to cooperate?
TODD: Let them stop you. And then what's wrong with going to court? And what's wrong with, like, playing by a set of rules and then going in --
LANZA: Here by the set of rules.
ELROD: Perfectly capable of handling this without the national --
LANZA: The set of rules is that law enforcement in every other state except sanctuary states, which are primarily blue states, follow the law. They work with law enforcement so these ICE people can complete their raids, they cooperate, they protect everybody. They protect equipment.
That's not happening in blue states, blue states, governors and blue states mayors made a decision that were not actually going to help enforce federal law, and we're going to look the other way, and we're going to let this take place. And that's why we have the confrontation, because blue states have chosen this path.
The American people have chosen president Trump to deport all these illegals who've come in during the last four years during his administration, and that's what they want. And it's blue states, they're the barrier.
TODD: He's now backing off.
LANZA: But just to be clear.
TODD: Trump is.
BROWNSTEIN: Just to be clear, you were saying -- just to be clear, you're saying you are okay with the idea of the national guard and even the marines now routinely being incorporated into immigration enforcement, providing security, which is the position the administration is taking today in court as we speak. And in fact, as is already occurring in L.A., that you -- you are -- I'm just asking.
LANZA: No, no.
BROWNSTEIN: Would this be something you'd be okay to see in Chicago, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia?
LANZA: I would love to see cooperation from blue states, but if we're going to speak specifically about the National Guard in California, Gavin Newsom nationalized the national guard, took over control of National Guard for three years.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
LANZA: He kept special consideration well beyond COVID. So, if we're talking about dictator approaches and people who are doing the wrong path, California was the extreme of --
BROWNSTEIN: The National Guard providing perimeter security for ICE raids in cities across the country, which is the position the administration is taking now. But you're not -
LANZA: Listen, I would prefer cooperation. I would prefer these blue state mayors follow the law. But if they don't choose to do that, President Trump made a commitment to the American people that he's going to follow the law.
TODD: B the way, before this incident, we had a we had a Trump TACO moment, meaning Trump is tweeting about all these, all of his hotel friends have called him up, going, you're get -- you have just cost us a whole bunch of. And now he's saying, my farmer friends and my hotel friends, we were getting rid of good people and we need to be careful.
So, it is to me right now, we're -- and I understand why this story is the dominant story. That to me was the most I'm sure Stephen Miller like cried when he saw Donald Trump say that. But that's a huge -- you know, that was his moment.
(CROSSTALK)
ELROD: To reiterate the fact -- to reiterate the fact that the reason why these are ICE raids are happening like this is because Trump doesn't want to talk about TACO, he doesn't want to talk about tariffs. He doesn't want to talk about the fact that he has wrecked our economy with these tariffs.
LANZA: He's saying, I'm going to deport the open border illegal that came in. And that's what he's doing. And by the way, he's going to do it this month and he's going to do it to the very end regardless of what anything is going on. HUNT: All right. We have a lot more to talk. We're going to continue
this very animated conversation. But we do have to take a quick break.
We'll be right back after just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our farmers are being hurt badly by., you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They -- they're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have. And I think we can't do that to our farmers and leisure to hotels. We're going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Welcome back. So that is exactly what Chuck Todd, you were just saying before we took a break. That was Donald Trump who clearly received some phone calls from -- I mean, he's been a hotelier for a long time. And obviously farmers, rural America, very much part of the MAGA coalition, you know, acknowledging this policy is not working for them.
TODD: These are look, these have been first gen jobs, okay? A lot of people come to America, and these have been two of the industries where -- where they come. And in fact, there's been a long debate for years about creating a temporary visa system for farm workers.
HUNT: Right.
TODD: And this has been a frustration, frankly, of people on both sides of the aisle. And frankly, it's not just California farmers. It's -- all coast to coast that this is an issue that congress --
HUNT: I mean, you go to Iowa.
TODD: Why are we dealing with this? Because Congress has failed on this issue time and time again.
But the fact that Trump is already backing off, I mean, Stephen Miller literally two days ago said, no, I don't care about those people.
BROWNSTEIN: Why is L.A. even happening? It's because Stephen Miller demanded a quota of 3,000 arrests a day, which requires DHS to go beyond what they said originally was their focus on violent criminals.
TODD: Temporary protected status for all those other groups.
BROWNSTEIN: You know, and so trying to increase the like, what is happening exactly in L.A. is basically an attempt to go beyond people who are criminals, to get to the numbers. And to do that, you have to go deep into the workforce.
And we saw the video of them chasing people through the fields in central California, in districts like David Valadao was like. And now Trump is saying, never mind like, why? Why are we having this whole exercise in California to begin?
ELROD: This is one of the things that he ran on in 2016. He ran on in 2020. He's running on it in 2024. He ran on it in 2024. I mean, this is one of the signature issues. And now he's backing out.
HUNT: And I will see that -- say briefly Bryan, I want to go to Nick Watt in L.A. but there is a distinction between the border, right, and securing the border and preventing additional Americans from coming in, which clearly was a winning issue for Donald Trump, and this type of enforcement that is affecting the communities here.
LANZA: Listen, I think all along, you know, those who've worked in this immigration space, I've worked at, at the state level, the federal level knew that changes would ultimately some changes would take place. I said that during the campaign is you're going to have phase one, which is going to be targeting the criminals. And once you have the conclusion of phase one, you're going to analyze what you did right, what you did wrong, and what phase two looks like.
[16:55:04]
To me, it now looks like the transition. Phase two, they're analyzing what went right and what went wrong, and realizing that there's a lot of economic activity at stake here. And that's not the goal of his presidency, he's to harm economic activity.
HUNT: All right. Well, let's look and see -- let's talk to CNN's Nick Watt is on the ground for us in Los Angeles, where, of course, you know, the fallout has been driving this escalation. The reaction to those ICE raids in California.
Nick, what are you seeing on site where you are as, of course, we've all seen this dramatic confrontation between California senator and law enforcement protecting the DHS secretary.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, the protest here, Kasie, pretty chill so far. It is picking up as the day goes on, as we've seen in the past few days, it's a lot of noise. That's about it right now.
We're going to back up just a little bit. So, these are the National Guard who are guarding this federal building. Now they are the subject of this lawsuit, this hearing that's underway pretty much right now in San Francisco. The governor, the state trying to have a temporary restraining order to move them out.
Now, interestingly, what has been the flashpoint here, Kasie, most days have been when convoys of DHS or ICE come into this detention facility, presumably to drop people off that they've detained.
Today, we've noticed all the vehicles coming in and out have been unmarked. And actually, the protesters haven't even reacted to them at all. So last night, curfew again, pretty chill. They arrested about 80 people, the LAPD. It was all fairly calm, although they wouldn't, interestingly, let us up to the point where they were making the arrests.
They kept us back. They said that if we were to approach while they were making arrests, that might compromise their tactics in some way. Unclear what exactly that means, but that's what we were told.
So, we are here waiting to see how this develops. I imagine it will be the same as yesterday. More people as the day goes on, more chanting, insults hurled when they see convoys coming in -- Kasie.
HUNT: All right. Nick Watt for us on the ground. Nick, thank you very much for that report.
And, Ron Brownstein, in terms of the lawsuit itself, Nick Watt outside that federal building, he, of course, in the thick of things. But really what California is trying to do is move people out of neighborhoods.
BROWNSTEIN: At a neighbor -- as I read the lawsuit, they are not saying that the national guard and marines cannot guard federal buildings. What they're asking is a restraining order on the use of marines and national guard going into neighborhoods across Los Angeles, integrated into routine immigration enforcement, providing perimeter security and security along the route.
And what the Trump administration is claiming in their legal response to the suit from California, is that they have the authority to use the marines in the national guard for any purposes short of directly arresting people without invoking the insurrection act. Basically, they can now, under their interpretation, as we saw in the order Saturday night, incorporate the national guard and marines into immigration enforcement in any city in the country.
HUNT: All right. So, we've got about two minutes left in what has been another intense hour of TV. I think I just want to take a step back here and just sit with kind of where we are. And, you know, just very briefly, is there anything that we as a country can do to walk back from this brink, from this ledge that we are on? Because it certainly feels like we are going somewhere that is potentially very difficult. Chuck?
TODD: Well, look, I was just telling with Ron earlier, you know, in a very normal political environment, tonight, we would find out that the sitting president called up Senator Padilla and said, you know, that that went too far. I'm sorry about that. I'm going to -- you know, we're not going to let that happen again. And vice versa, Senator Padilla would say, you know what? I went too far. I shouldn't have done it that way.
So it's going to take -- if the president has to, I always say this about presidents. They have to go 80 percent of the way. It isn't halfway. Presidents have to go 80 percent of the way. And it's on him. He either chooses to be de-escalatory or he chooses not to be, but it's on him.
HUNT: Bryan?
LANZA: Look, I think there's no de-escalation in the forefront. You're going to continue to see more members of Congress try to seek media attention, try to fundraise, and then you're going to see our administration push back. I honestly see no off ramp in the near future.
HUNT: Adrienne?
ELROD: Well, I mean, that's the problem right there is because Chuck is actually saying like it is, he is the president of the United States is 80 percent on him. You're saying it's members of Congress, Democratic members of Congress who are the problem.
The bottom line is it does have to be both sides that come together. But the president of the United States is the one who is ultimately responsible for deescalating this. He's creating a situation. He's manufacturing a crisis there so he can try to put it out with the National Guard and Marines. That is not an effective strategy to bring this country back together.
BROWNSTEIN: As I said during his first term, Trump governs as a wartime president with blue America rather than any foreign adversary as the enemy. I think most Americans on both sides of the ideological divide do not want to live this way at this level of conflict with their fellow countrymen.
And I think it is, as Chuck says, ultimately on the president above all, to take us back from this ledge.
HUNT: All right. I do think there's quite a few. You know, a lot of Americans are telling us this is not how they want to live, to Ron's point.
All right. Thanks very much for being with us this hour. Don't go anywhere.
"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.
