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JD Vance’s decision to refer to California US senator Alex Padilla by the name of a terrorist conspirator showed how “unserious” the Trump administration is, the lawmaker has said of the vice-president.
“He knows my name – he knows my name,” Padilla told MSNBC’s The Weekend on Saturday, 12 days after the FBI forcibly removed him from a 12 June news conference hosted by US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem amid anti-immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) protests in Los Angeles.
“Look, sadly it’s just an indicator about how petty and unserious this administration is. You’d think he’d take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously.
“We’ve got a lot of important work to do. But this is how the vice-president chooses to act, and that says a lot.”
Vance’s barb toward Padilla on Friday came during a visit to Los Angeles in which he accused mayor Karen Bass and California governor Gavin Newsom of encouraging violent anti-Ice protests to parry criticism from state officials. Local authorities had contended that, over their objections, Donald Trump’s administration fueled the unrest by sending federal officers and military troops to the city.
When a correspondent for the far-right Daily Wire asked about Democrats being placed in handcuffs by federal officers, Vance referred to Padilla as “Jose Padilla”, invoking the name of a US national who was accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb on behalf of al-Qaida in 2002.
“I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,” said Vance, who previously served on the US Senate alongside Alex Padilla. “I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater. And that’s all it is.”
The Republican’s comments drew backlash from Democrats, prompting a spokesperson for Vance to say that the vice-president “must have mixed up two people who broke the law.”
Newsom called Vance out in a post on social media. “JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate. Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” Newsom wrote.
Newsom continued to take shots at Vance, posting that it was nice of Vance to “finally make it out to California” and challenging him to a debate. “Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face? Let’s debate. Time and place?” the post read.
Another social media post from Newsom’s press office account addressed Trump and included a cartoonish depiction of Vance at a podium. “Donald, you should send @JDVance out to California more often. He’s absolutely crushing it!”
In his interview with MSNBC, Padilla alluded to the fact that he had neither been arrested nor charged with any crimes after he was handcuffed and removed from the Noem news conference, saying, “I didn’t break any laws.”
Padilla’s removal – caught on video – occurred as he tried to ask questions about the White House’s immigration policies, which were implemented after Trump won a second presidency in November despite having been convicted in criminal court of 34 felony charges of criminally falsifying business records in a case that involved payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
He told The Weekend that he would have no issue if Trump’s immigration crackdown was aimed exclusively at “drug dealers, violent criminals, dangerous criminals, et cetera”.
“Everybody is on board with that,” he said. But he mentioned recent news reporting that established most people being taken into Ice custody “have no serious criminal convictions”, as he put it.
Padilla’s removal from the Noem press briefing was just one of many instances of “overreach” demonstrated by Trump’s administration since he retook office in January, he said to The Weekend.
“We have no choice but to stand up – we have no choice but to speak up,” said Padilla, who joined the Senate in 2021. “As painful as [the removal] was for me, for my family, it’s not about me.
“If this is what this administration is willing to do to a senator trying to ask a question, imagine … what is happening in all corners of the country … when the cameras are not on.”
Robert Mackey contributed reporting
