Padilla cuffed, McIver indicted: Can Congress come back from the brink?

You have lots of places to choose from to get your message out to the press if you’re House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

It’s best to get your message out succinctly, clearly and free of interference.

So when Johnson decided to boast about the House making good on the first bill to codify DOGE cuts and slash $9.4 billion from USAID and public broadcasting, he stepped just outside the House chamber and into a throng of reporters gathered by the Will Rogers Statue.

“Republicans will continue to deliver real accountability and restore fiscal discipline,” said Johnson.  

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But the Will Rogers Statue area is a major thoroughfare in the Capitol. At the moment Johnson spoke Thursday, dozens of House Democrats were headed toward the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. They were demanding answers about why federal agents tossed Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., to the ground and handcuffed him during a press conference in Los Angeles with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

When Johnson finished talking about reeling in the money for public broadcasting and USAID, reporters only wanted to ask about Padilla.

Yours truly included.

“Did the federal agents go too far,” I asked. “Was that a bridge too far?”

A long line of angry House Democrats squeezed past Johnson in the Will Rogers corridor. But because Johnson chose to speak in such a heavily-trafficked locale, Democrats hectored Johnson as they marched to the Senate.

“Yes it was!” shouted an unidentified Democrat as she strode past the scrum, answering my question for Johnson.

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But Johnson immediately pivoted to what Padilla did, standing up at Noem’s press conference to holler questions at her from the back of the room.

“It was wildly inappropriate,” said Johnson of Padilla as he spoke to the Capitol press corps. “You don’t charge a sitting cabinet secretary…”

“That’s a lie!” shouted another unidentified Democrat.

“A lie!” yelled someone else.

Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., stopped to snarl something at the Speaker. But it was impossible to hear over the din.

“He was acting like a senator,” charged Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. “Why don’t you stand up for Congress!”

“Can you respond to these people heckling you Mr. Speaker?” I asked.

“I’m not going to respond to that,” replied Johnson.

The Capitol was pulsing at this point. The crush of House Democrats barged into the office of Thune, who was at the White House.

Lucky him.

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The Democrats then trooped back across the Rotunda and poured into Johnson’s office.

“When the Speaker of the House refers to a sitting Member of the U.S. Senate who simply tried to exercise his First Amendment rights as acting like a thug, we’re very concerned about that,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y. “Both the Speaker and Leader Thune should step up to the moment and preserve the institution of Congress, which are a balance in democracy and important balance in democracy.”

One lawmaker who didn’t join the angry Democratic mob was Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa. Dean stood apprehensively just beyond the wall of reporters and outside the invisible bubble created by Johnson’s security detail. When Johnson concluded speaking, Dean tried to pierce the security ring to have a civil conversation with the Speaker.

“Mike! Mike!” said Dean, trying to capture Johnson’s attention. “It’s Madeline.”

Johnson finally realized that “Madeleine” wasn’t some reporter trying to squeeze in an extra question for the Speaker. But someone he obviously knew. A fellow lawmaker. Someone from across the aisle with whom he must have a friendship and working relationship.

Johnson and Dean spoke in hushed tones as they walked quietly across Statuary Hall. Some in the press corps followed, trying to divine what they were saying. This wasn’t an offstage chat back in the Speaker’s Suite or on a private telephone call. But it went down in a very public part of the U.S. Capitol.

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The conversation continued as the duo stopped adjacent to the “British Steps” near the Speaker’s Office. Dean clenched both of her hands into fists as she and the Speaker were about to part ways. She lightly touched Johnson on the right arm as he ducked into the Speaker’s Office.

“Thank you, sir,” said Dean.

“What were you speaking to the Speaker about?” I asked the Congresswoman.

“I just want to keep that to myself,” answered Dean. “But the one thing I wanted to say is that it’s up to the President to turn the temperature down. Everyone is inflamed. And agitated. But it starts with the President. He said ‘I’m talking to the President,’” said Dean.

But other Republicans may have tried to dial up the temperature by blasting Padilla.

Padilla left Washington earlier in the week to be in LA during the riots. The senator was supposed to start at first base for the Democrats in the Congressional Baseball Game on Wednesday night.

Republicans charged that Padilla should have stayed moored in Washington.

“He has a responsibility to show up at work not to go make a spectacle,” said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo.

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“The fact that he’s in California and not in D.C. while the Senate is voting means he’s not as concerned about doing his job here,” said Senate Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.

Scalise conceded he had gone home to Louisiana when hurricanes threatened the state. He argued that he “wouldn’t go back home to try to stir angst against the federal agents that were coming and help us get back on our feet.”

Outraged Democrats thundered on the Senate floor, railing against the plight of Padilla.

“This is the stuff of dictatorships. It is actually happening,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

“It’s despicable. It’s disgusting. It is so un-American,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“I think it’s unprecedented,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. “It’s obnoxious, and it’s rather escalatory.”

But the outrage wasn’t limited to Democrats.

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“I’ve seen that one clip. It’s horrible. It is shocking at every level. And it’s not the America I know,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski,” R-Alaska.

The band of Democrats who ran over to Thune’s office never did find him. But by nightfall, Thune said he spoke to Padilla, Senate Sergeant at Arms Jennifer Hemingway and tried to contact Noem.

“We want to get the full scope of what happened,” said Thune.

This falls against the backdrop of the feds charging Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., for assaulting federal agents at a Newark detention facility earlier this spring. These episodes have shaken Congress. 

Lawmakers wonder what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot. And despite the partisan chasms, they’re all lawmakers. They know that if something like this can happen to Padilla, well, they could be next.

Confidence and trust are waning.

“I remain hopeful that Leader Thune and other Republicans can walk us back from the brink,” said Schatz. “But I am not so sure anymore.”