Alex Padilla

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my colleagues to express outrage over the actions taking place in Los Angeles when our dear colleague Alex Padilla, Senator Padilla, was thrown out of an event where he was just simply trying to express his opinion on behalf of the millions of Californians that he represents.

It is so interesting to me that this situation happened because not that long ago in the State of Washington, in Olympia, we had a bill signing, and it is no secret in the State of Washington that a guy named Tim Eyman is probably the antithesis of what our Governor Bob Ferguson believes.

He fights him on all sorts of initiatives to the people about policies that Mr. Eyman wants to express. So he is a noted individual in our State.

So Mr. Eyman shows up at a press conference to basically protest a bill that the Governor is going to sign.

And he gets into the Governor's office, and he stands right behind our Governor. One of our legislators, who basically wants the Governor to know that this individual, who he disagrees with--doesn't support this bill--has now snuck into the Governor's press conference.

So what does our Governor do? He turns around, and he looks at Mr. Eyman, and he says, ``Oh, why are you here?''

And he said, ``I'm here to protest this.''

And the Governor turns around and delivers his remarks. Because, you know why? Because our Governor was not afraid what Tim Eyman said. Our Governor didn't think, You throw him out of the building, and he is just a constituent.

It is not like he is a State rep. It is not like he got elected by people. Our Governor was not afraid to let this voice be heard. But somehow, ICE and Homeland Security are afraid of the voice of Alex Padilla. They are afraid of Alex Padilla's presence in a room.

Now, how can that be in the United States of America that a Senator elected by the people of his State, who simply wants to go to a public meeting and have his voice heard on behalf of his constituents, is handcuffed and thrown to the ground?

It is not acceptable. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle need to say, ``This is not acceptable.''

Are we trying to freeze the voice of dissent? Are we trying to say that we cannot understand what true public policy discourse is about? I think we showed in Olympia, WA, that we are big enough to take it, that we know that if somebody disagrees with us, we are not going to get them thrown out.

And in this case, to have a U.S. Senator handcuffed and thrown to the ground is disrespectful. It is an atrocity. We need to understand how this is happening and if this administration or this side of the aisle thinks that is the way you treat the voice of a U.S. Senator expressing dissent.

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