Three Data Points from the Padilla Assault

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I want to call out three data points regarding the assault of Senator Alex Padilla yesterday.

First, in media appearances and on this video, Senator Padilla explained that he was in the Federal building for a scheduled briefing on the Federal response in Los Angeles. There was a delay so he asked to go to the presser. As he describes it, a Guard and an FBI Agent escorted him to the presser.

While I was waiting for the briefing, I learned that just down the hall from where I was, Secretary Noem from the Department of Homeland Security was having a press conference, Now Secretary Noem and the Department — we have been calling on and we have been sending letters to since the beginning of the year requesting more information as to what and why they are doing, with little to no response. And so I thought let me go over there, listen in on the press conference, maybe they’re sharing some important information. And while I did that, escorted over there by a National Guardsman and an FBI agent, …

This makes Dan Bongino’s description of the event entirely deceptive.

If the FBI brought him to the presser, it doesn’t matter whether he had his Senate pin. The FBI knew his identity. And yet an FBI agent was involved in the assault on Padilla regardless.

Secondly, in a presser, Gavin Newsom returned to comments about his call, last Friday night, with Donald Trump.

Oh, I would love to share the readout but I revere the office of presidency so I’ll keep it in confidence. He has quite literally made up components of that conversation. Um, he’s been a stone cold liar about what he said we talked about. He never discussed the National Guard, period, full stop. I would love to share with you what we actually talked about. That would send shivers up your spine.

[snip]

We discussed for a nanosecond Los Angeles and he immediately zigged and zagged to seven or eight other topics. Some extraordinarily familiar. And some extraordinarily remarkable considering the world we’re living in.

Again, after a hearing before Charles Breyer on the lawsuit, at which the substance of that call — whether Trump actually raised the Guard — was an issue, Newsom accused Trump of making up components of the conversation and then said the actual content of the call “would send shivers up your spine” but he wasn’t sharing it because “I revere the office of the presidency.”

I don’t doubt that some deference to the Office of the President is one reason Newsom hasn’t told us what Trump said. After all, he no doubt still harbors ambitions to one day occupy that office. The tenor of the lawsuit challenging Trump adopts a sober legal approach, avoiding some things — like Whiskey Pete’s apparent ignorance of basic facts about the deployment (such as whether the Marines would come from Camp Pendleton or, as is the case, Twentynine Palms and when they finished training for the deployment) — that would be great politically but shift the focus away from Trump and onto Hegseth’s incompetence. In the lawsuit (as distinct from his public messaging, including this presser) Newsom has been making a constitutional argument, not a political one.

The government seems to understand it is vulnerable to Newsom’s claim that Trump fabricated parts of the conversation. As I noted, in their response to the lawsuit they relied on an erroneous Fox News report on the timing of the call, not the readout of the call that the White House presumably has.

At approximately 10:23pm PT that night, President Trump called Governor Newsom. The President informed Governor Newsom of the dangers that federal personnel and property were being subjected to and directed him to take action to stop the violence.4

4
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-brings-receipts-he-called-newsom-amid-la-riots-california-gov-claims-wasnt-even-voicemail.amp; see also https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/06/09/watch-governor-newsom-discusses-donald-trumps-mess-inlos-angeles/ (Governor Newsom concurring that the call took place)

They do not include any other source to substantiate the claim that “the President informed Governor Newsom,” and in the hearing yesterday DOJ did not back the specific claims Trump and Steve Cheung made to Fox (though Brett Shumate did claim that something about the call led Trump to conclude the laws were not being executed, one basis DOJ relied on to claim the usurpation was legal).

And so, Newsom hinted at more, but claimed he couldn’t share it — as if threatening to share the real content of the call would damage Trump (or make his depravity clear).

I mean, it’s clear Trump said something. After all, before the call, Trump threatened to cut off all funding to CA (a threat that has not yet manifested, even though it was presented as imminent). After the call, Newsom came out with two messages: Trump is a “Stone cold liar” and “there’s no working with the President. There’s only working for him. And I will never work for Donald Trump.”

I suspect Newsom is daring Trump to make him share the content of the call (and, likely, testing to see what kind of records Trump is willing to show). I suspect Newsom that call is important not just because of what Trump didn’t say, about the Guard deployment, but what he did say before he invaded California.

I suspect Trump tried to make a deal. Trump tried to get Newsom to work for him. And when Newsom refused, Trump invaded.

Which brings me to the last data point. In one clip of the NBC footage from the Padilla assault — which, of course, came just as Kristi Noem claimed she was going to liberate Los Angeles  from government by their duly elected Governor and Mayor — Peter Hamby spied Corey Lewandowski overseeing the aftermath of the assault.

Lewandowski, of course, has a history of assaulting people as he removed them from Trump events.

What gets made of the Padilla assault remains very much contested. Right wing propagandists — from Noem and her staffers to Bongino to members of Congress — are trying to claim that a Latino man obviously couldn’t be assumed to be a Senator elected by 6.6 million Californians, not even if an FBI agent escorted him into that room. That response gives up the game, of course: this was Trump’s racist Administration treating one of the most powerful Latino’s in the country just like they’re treating the day laborers and farmworkers they’re chasing down fields.

But it comes amid a larger context — the context in which Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump are directly combatting whether Trump may be king.

Update: Corrected the timing of Newsom’s comment. It happened after Breyer issued his ruling.

Update: NYT quotes Padilla claiming Lewandowski came running down the hall telling people to let him go.

On the videos, Mr. Padilla appeared stunned but repeatedly said he was a U.S. senator. In an interview hours later, Mr. Padilla said that he had demanded to know why he had been detained and where he was being escorted “when of all people, Corey Lewandowski” — a combative former Trump campaign aide and adviser to Ms. Noem — “comes running down the hall and he starts yelling, ‘Let him go! Let him go!’”

Update: In response to James Comer and Clay Higgins’ excitement about targeting Newsom and Karen Bass for investigation, Newsom’s office promises, “some highly unusual communications from the White House” and then, in the next tweet, highlighs Newsom’s comment.

So, yeah, he was hoping someone would force him to turn this over and two of the dumbest members of Congress complied.

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66 replies
  1. earlofhuntingdon says:

    As Breyer’s opinion, which Marcy links to, points out, even assuming the claim is true, that the state may be having trouble executing the law in a small pocket of one city does not meet the statutory definition. It’s also not sufficient if the inability to execute the law is limited to one or a few laws, Prohibition, for example, or issues.

    The inability must be aimed at the overthrow of govt and beyond the state’s willingness or ability to control. Unlike the situation in California today, the latter was true when Lyndon Johnson last used the NG, in 1965, in opposition to a state governor’s refusal to enforce federal civil rights laws.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      To be clear, the situation in 1965 was not the overthrow of state govt, but the state govt’s own knowing and proud refusal to enforce federal civil rights laws.

      Ironically, that description captures the work of Trump, Miller, Hegseth and Noem far better than it does the aims of a small group of people in L.A., engaged in peaceful protest of govt overreach.

      • Don_24FEB2024_1000h says:

        If you’re just gonna lay down in a ditch and give up then do us all a favor and don’t take your phone with you, quitter

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  3. Peterr says:

    Newsom is clearly throwing down on Team Trump. “I won’t reveal the readout of that call . . . now. But if you keep up with your stone cold lying, I may have to reluctantly reveal it in court.”

    Or to put it in language Trump would understand, “Nice administration you’ve got here. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.”

  4. Legonaut says:

    An assault on a sitting Senator by the Executive Branch is an assault on the prerogatives of the entire body, regardless of party. I’d expect any big, beautiful legislative activity in that chamber to cease until an investigation was completed and the appropriate heads rolled. Even a Rethuglican majority leader should be able to recognize and resist such a power grab, just out of self-preservation.

    • Memory hole says:

      The only self preservation nearly every Republican shows, is deference to Trump’s stochastic terrorism, and or blackmail.
      Over and over media reports give examples that Trump and MAGA are fascists and the greatest danger and assault on America since Pearl Harbor. And yet they refuse to highlight that fact with the blazing headlines these act deserve. Then they try to normalize it as a political wrestling match in their news commentary.

    • ToldainDarkwater says:

      This would be my expectation as well. In fact, I would be asking for Noem’s to apologize or step down. Though I would probably just say “step down” because I think it’s more likely than an apology.

  5. MsJennyMD says:

    Corey Lewandowski seems to be “up close and personal” with Kristi and her pack.
    “I am not a rabble rouser.” Corey Lewandowski

    • sfvalues says:

      Scratching my head wondering why the FBI would take orders from Corey Lewandowksi, or why he would expect them to, so I checked. According to Wikipedia he’s an advisor to DHS and a special government employee. Vague role with vague responsibilities, but I suppose that explains why Noem’s security detail would know him.

        • SteveBev says:

          Jacket in photo has Presidential Seal surrounded by legends
          Above: “ PRESIDENTIAL RETREAT”
          Below : “CAMP DAVID”

          Which makes him look even more important in a nebulously connected to the Presidency sort of way.

    • MSanthrope says:

      It seems that if Lewandowski had not intervened, Senator Padilla would have been arrested. All these assaults and illegal arrests of Democrats and Labor leaders and shooting journalists (rubber bullets) are abuses of power that may be grounds for impeachment of Noem.

      • MsJennyMD says:

        Cory to the rescue to do clean up on aisle 47 for Kristi.
        Perhaps his intervention wasn’t to help Senator Padilla, instead to limit the damage to Kristi.

  6. Matt Foley says:

    Before he was elected senator Padilla was appointed by Newsom to replace Kamala Harris. Obviously a bad hombre who stole a white guy’s job.

    • P J Evans says:

      Before he was Senator he was CA secretary of state for several years – an elected position. And before that, he was on the L.A. City Council, also an elected position. He’s from Pacoima.

      • matt fischer says:

        Tony Cárdenas and Barbara Lee are also from Pacoima, as was Ritchie Valens of “La Bamba” fame (we both attended Pacoima Junior High).

  7. retired railroad switchperson says:

    What were Senator Padilla’s National Guard & FBI escorts doing during the assault?

    • P J Evans says:

      They may have left once he was at the presser, being an escort through the hall. Or maybe they waited out in the hall. We don’t know. Yet.

  8. Richard_13JUN2025_1143h says:

    For the record, Senator Padilla is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety. He has EVERY RIGHT to ask questions of Noem….. and given that the subcommittee almost certainly has meetings and other contacts with her, she DAMN WELL KNEW who he was.

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  9. Bugboy321 says:

    “That response gives up the game..”

    I fully expect them to trial balloon some version of tone deafness: “They all look alike!”

    Please proceed, DHS Secretary Uncanny Valley.

    • Ciel babe says:

      WINNING! So much! Let’s make special tiger winning jackets for parade! Wait – why are the face eating leopards attacking the parade?

    • BRUCE F COLE says:

      If he does start the parade early, ostensibly to avoid the storms, he can use the time change to explain sparse attendance, which is being predicted anyway!

      We’ve got rain predicted here in ME today, but I’m guessing our NoKings protests will be overflowing.

      • BRUCE F COLE says:

        …and our Rockland ME NoKings event was indeed overflowing today, breaching the city park where it was permitted. I’m guessing in the neighborhood of 1k folks. There was a Dem rally in a park across the street, 2 hrs earlier, and most of those folks went to the main one at noon, at the center-of-town intersection next to the harbor. Elbow to elbow at the latter one, although I’m guessing there were 4-500 at the Dem rally.

        Best signs: Two play on words: “Faux President Donald Trump” and “Foxtrot Delta Tango,”” and the turnabout: “Are We Great Yet?”.

        Best speaker at the Dem rally was an 18yo who just graduated from HS in town, and who gave an eloquent rundown of what her generation is going through, like the Vietnam era on steroids (climate, guns, social media, MAGA, bodily autonomy, etc); and she went on to rouse the crowd with her vision going forward, walking off to a long ovation. I asked the Dem organizers if they had a copy of the speech and they said no; I then asked them to button-hole her and ask for the text because I want to broadcast it myself. They said they’d email it to me.

        The whole scene, start to finish, was a great boost for me, and for the folks I interacted with there.

        I hope the DC Trump parade tonight is embarrassing as hell.

        • Magnet48 says:

          I went to No Kings Chestertown, my first protest ever. A young man who started a Young Democrats Club in the local high school was a speaker, as well as an autistic, blind young woman who had lots to say to RFK Jr. Also, the chairman of the local republican party spoke & was very welcome.

  11. Depressed Chris says:

    This might help the discovery process along. Although a third party account, but believable, the original Operations Order (OPORD) stated that the California National Guard was activated and brought under Title 10 by a call from Hegseth to the National Guard. The OPORD gives the General’s name, which I can’t recall. There is no mention of when that happened. The OPORD states that The President delegated this to the SECDEF after he signed the Executive Order. I’m not sure if the law requires the President to personally activate the National Guard. I think Bobby Kennedy, as Attorney General, did this for his brother.

    • David Brooks says:

      10.12406 requires (using the verb “shall”) the governor to activate the guard. But it doesn’t specify a time limit.

      I think the court challenge is on the three predicates for federalization, but I have lost track somewhat.

      • P-villain says:

        DOJ also made the risible argument that by putting the magic words “through the Governor of the State of California” in all caps at the top of the order, they obviously complied with that element of the statutory language.

        • Bugboy321 says:

          Before I even saw that DOJ claim, I saw that “through” language. It reminds me of the countless inter-departmental memos I’ve done “through” my supervisor. “They couldn’t be THAT much of an amateur to think that would work” was my next thought. Yeah, they could think exactly that…

          I’m pretty sure if I tried to pull that shit on my supervisor, my lil’ ole “at will” job would cease to exist, at least for me, because “through” doesn’t mean a damned thing if my supervisor doesn’t sign.

  12. Ciel babe says:

    Nice breakdown of this event, thank you.
    What do you make of the repeated mentioning of the Senator “lunging at” or “rushing” Noem / the podium. This is the stated justification for bonkers response, from multiple sources including the inimitable Mike J, Speaker Extraordinaire. Is this messaging just cheap amping of racism (oooh, scary brown dude! He lunges at defenseless women!) that play because there’s no video to counter it? Or is there video and first person accounts that directly trash that nonsense?

    Or perhaps this is the messaging because now we’re at a place of amping up violence, and excuses for violence, which includes convincing base of constant threat of violence? It feels like a shift in the very recent past, say in the last week or so. See also: No Kings protest day comments re: pre-assuming violence, getting into dark mode of us-vs-them-ok-to-lead-with-violence-before-they-hurt-us.

    • Thequickbrownfox says:

      Noem is sick and violent. She doesn’t have the intelligence to train a puppy, so she killed it.

      That’s all I need to know, including about those that will associate with her.

    • Memory hole says:

      It seems that audio and video evidence isn’t enough to prevent Republicans from lying. As in the tourist visit on Jan 6. Or the arrest of Mayor Baraka.

      Lying against reality is a badge of honor to prove membership in the DJT MAGA cult

  13. MsJennyMD says:

    OT, however educational and insightful.
    Nazi Town, USA
    The untold story of Nazi sympathizers on American soil
    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/nazi-town-usa/#part01
    In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the “Jewish controlled media” and called for a return to a racially “pure” America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. Nazi Town, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Its melding of patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism raised thorny issues that we continue to wrestle with today.

    • Magnet48 says:

      There was a movie in 1962 called “Pressure Point”, about an American nazi sympathizer, a difficult patient played by Bobby Darin being treated by psychiatrist Sidney Poitier. He was at that ” rally”.

    • P J Evans says:

      People forget, if they ever even knew, that there were a *lot* of Nazi fans in the US. Including Lindbergh, who, IIRC, tried running for president and, fortunately for us, lost.

  14. Gacyclist says:

    Remember trump’s “,beautiful call” to SOS raffensburger? It’d be nice if Newsom recorded his.

  15. Scott Logan says:

    Thank you emptywheel for the coverage, but something is missing. We know the Senator was escorted in, and we know he was pushed out. We know Noem kept on gaslighting without missing a beat. And we know that she knew that he had an appointment, which stemmed from several contacts between his office and hers, which the Miller W.H. must have been aware of. Oh yes, we know that the pusher-agents stayed cool, calm, and mission-focused. And we know that no members of the press at the “press-conference” said “hey, that’s Senator Padilla!” (Cory, where were you?) They rant about Newsom, Bass, and Schiff, but forgot about the Latino Senator? Give me a break, it sure looks like a set-up.

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    • Rayne says:

      If by “set-up” you mean Noem, the “pusher-agents,” and the members of the press treated Padilla like just another Hispanic/Latin person, well yes, that’s what structural racism and white supremacy look like in action.

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