(WASHINGTON) — Democrats expressed outrage after Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference on Thursday in Los Angeles, taken to the ground and handcuffed by law enforcement officers.

Noem was speaking to the media about the federal response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the area when Padilla entered the room and approached Noem’s podium. As he approached, police officers in the room grabbed the senator, rushed him out of the room into a hallway, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Video shows Padilla, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, identifying himself and saying he wanted to ask a question as law enforcement forced him out of the room.

Padilla was later seen without handcuffs speaking to Noem in a conference room. Noem said later that the two spoke for 10 to 15 minutes and exchanged phone numbers. Noem said she didn’t expect him to be charged.

Noem said law enforcement reacted because he took steps toward her without identifying himself. She told Fox News that no one knew who he was and that he was “lunging forward.”

Video of the incident captures Padilla identifying himself as he is pushed out of the room; it’s not clear if he did before the incident or as he approached the podium.

Padilla later told reporters that he attended the news conference because Homeland Security had not been answering his questions about the administration’s deportation and immigration policies.

“And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information,” the senator said, emphasizing that he was there peacefully.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin alleged Padilla did not identify himself before approaching the podium.

“Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” she said in a post on X. “Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”

Noem told Fox News that she would have preferred to have talked with Padilla, “but coming into a press conference like this is political theater.”

“We sat down and had a conversation and we probably disagree on 90% of the topics but we agreed and exchanged phone numbers and we will continue to talk and share information and that is the way it should be in this country. I wish he would’ve acted that way in the beginning is that of creating a scene like this

Padilla’s Democratic colleagues were critical of the way he was treated.

“I just saw something that sickened my stomach — the manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Padilla “one of the most decent people I know.”

“This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful,” Newsom wrote on X. “Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass posted on X, “What just happened to @SenAlexPadilla is absolutely abhorrent and outrageous.”

Fellow California Sen. Adam Schiff called the actions against Padilla an “assault” on democracy.

“This is an administration that has no respect for our democracy, for our institutions, for the separation of powers, for a co-equal branch of government,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters the way Padilla was handled was a “complete and total disgrace.”

“[Senator Padilla] was at that press conference doing his job, asking questions about what is taking place in California, the state that he represents and on behalf of the American people, and he was recklessly and aggressively manhandled. That was unacceptable. It was unconscionable. It was unpatriotic. It’s un-American, and every single person who was involved in manhandling Senator Padilla should be held accountable to the full extent of the law,” he told reporters.

Jeffries said Democrats would “push back aggressively in every way possible” to hold this administration accountable.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also demanded an investigation into the incident.

“This is unacceptable, full stop,” the CHC posted on X. “@SenAlexPadilla attended an open press conference to engage in debate, to represent his state, to do his job. We demand a full investigation and consequences for every official involved in this assault against a sitting US senator.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called the incident “a shameful and stunning abuse of power.”

On the Senate floor, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said, “It is unacceptable that a United States senator, in his elected home state, elected by millions of people, went to ask a question for his constituents to get an answer, and brutally thrown to the ground and handcuffed. That is wrong.

“What happens when that voice was stifled? What happens when that voice is thrown to the ground and handcuffed? That voice is lost,” she said.

Members of the Hispanic Caucus later barged into the offices of Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Democrats from the California congressional delegation rushed to the House steps to condemn the incident.

“This assault on Senator Padilla today was an assault on freedom of speech in our country,” former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of the California congressional delegation, called the incident an “outrage,” and suggested it was akin to “what it felt like to be in Germany in 1930.”

California Rep. Jimmy Gomez called for Noem to testify before Congress.

“A senior senator who was shouting at the top of his lungs, ‘I am Senator Alex Padilla,'” Gomez said. “And what we want to know — we’re going to ask for and demand that Kristi Noem come before Congress and testify about what occurred today.”

A statement from Padilla’s office said he was in the building to receive a briefing from NORTHCOM commander Gen. Gregory Guillot and was listening to Noem’s news conference.

“He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information,” the statement said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson admonished Padilla, calling the senator’s behavior “wildly inappropriate,” adding, “You don’t charge a sitting Cabinet secretary.”

“I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we’re going to do. That’s not how we’re going to act,” he said during a news conference on an unrelated matter that was interrupted by Democratic members shouting “You lie!” as they marched to Thune’s office to protest the incident.

ABC News’ Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.

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