"Awake and Alert": Democratic Senator Warns Americans Not to Underestimate the Trump Threat
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) called on Republicans and everyday Americans to “wake up,” warning that while Donald Trump is currently scapegoating immigrants to distract from negative headlines, no one is safe from his “power grabs.”
Padilla, who was manhandled, handcuffed forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s presser in Los Angeles last week after probing the Trump official’s statements, despite promptly identifying himself as a U.S. senator, in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday,said his case demonstrates how far the Trump administration is prepared to go to silence dissent.
The senator cited the arrest of New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander who was led away by masked agents at immigration court on Tuesday.
“Like me, Mr. Lander had the audacity to question the legitimacy of federal actions, only to find himself pushed against a wall and detained,” Padilla wrote. “If you watched what happened to me or Mr. Lander these past few days and thought this was about any one politician or altercation, you are missing the point.”
Padilla said it was entirely predictable that Trump would ratchet up his anti-immigrant rhetoric as a way to distract Americans from the negative headlines about his trade wars and his nasty feud with billionaire Elon Musk, among other things.
“With a cabinet of yes-men and underqualified attack dogs surrounding him — from the D.H.S. Secretary to the F.B.I. director to the secretary of defense — Mr. Trump is now testing the boundaries of his power,” he said. “And he’s using the theatrics around his immigration policies to do it.”
Earlier this month, Trump deployed the National Guard in LA against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), claiming the move was necessary to “address the lawlessness” amid protests against immigration raids in the city. Newsom and other California officials said his action would make things worse, setting up a public fight with the president.
“If you thought any of this administration’s theatrics in Los Angeles these past few weeks was truly about immigrants, it’s time to wake up,” Padilla said, adding that this should serve as a “warning shot” to the rest of the country.
“I pray it can also be a wake-up call — for my Republican Senate colleagues who have stayed silent in the face of their colleague’s handcuffing, but also for Americans of every stripe who think they’re insulated from Mr. Trump’s power grabs because they’re not immigrants or because they’re not from a blue state,” he said.
Only two GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), condemned Padilla’s rough treatment.
Still, Padilla said, it’s not too late for people to fight back to protect U.S. democracy against Trump’s overreaches.
“Democracy doesn’t fall from any one decision or any one attack,” Padilla said. “It falls when good people see our democracy sliding backward but still choose to say nothing.”
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