In yet another installment of leftist absurdity, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) appeared on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” and went berserk over the fact that Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) had been arrested for storming into a DHS press conference and assaulting a police office while there, declaring that the senator’s treatment was evidence of “authoritarianism” in America.
As background, the incident occurred when Sen. Padilla burst into the room in which Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem was giving a press conference, and once in it, he started lunging toward her at the podium. He then got in a scuffle with the officer, who pushed him away from the podium.
Padilla claimed the force used against him was “excessive,” but it appears that the force used was becuase he had, in addition to not identifying himself, physically pushed back against the law enforcement officer who was protecting Noem, which qualifies as assault. Noting as much, Dan Bongino said, “With regard to the incident in LA 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.”
Despite those facts, Sen. Merkley lost it over the incident, claiming that America is “authoritarian” because the senator was arrested after assaulting a cop while shoving toward the podium and not identifying himself. He began with hysterics, claiming, “We are seeing America slide into an authoritarian state.”
Pointing to the supposed examples of that alleged authoritarian drift, the woke senator then said, “The president is attacking freedom of the press, he’s attacking the universities, he’s attacking the law firms, he is proceeding to break so many laws regarding the conduct of the Executive Branch, and he’s stiff-arming the courts. This is how a republic becomes an authoritarian state.”
Continuing, Sen. Merkley then claimed the Sen. Padilla incident was yet more evidence of that, ignoring that the senator wasn’t wearing his security pin when the incident happened, and thus security would have had no way of knowing who he was. He said, “And we’re seeing one more evidence here. You know, our First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to petition the government with your grievances. Here is a U.S. Senator saying, Hey, I have a very serious question here. He’s identifying himself as a U.S. Senator.”
Building on that and keeping the pear-clutching hysterics up, he then said, “It’s a press conference. Why would not the secretary say, let’s hear from the senator from California? I’ll answer his question instead of having the FBI police shove him out of the room, knock him to the ground, handcuff him, because this administration is becoming an authoritarian state.”
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Concluding, the senator let fly with yet more of a freakout about what happened, saying, “It is absolutely wrong and it is outrageous. And members of colleagues of mine are on the Floor. I was on the floor a few minutes ago saying, This type of conduct has to end and we have to save our republic.”
Watch him here:
And watch Padilla’s arrest here:
Featured image credit: base image from the embedded video