JD Vance refers to Sen. Alex Padilla as 'Jose Padilla' days after LA incident

Vice President JD Vance referred to Senator Alex Padilla as "Jose Padilla" during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday, just days after Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference while attempting to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about immigration. JD Vance referred to Alex Padilla as 'Jose Padilla.'(REUTERS)
'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't the theater,' Vance told the press.
Vance's remark has since gone viral on social media, sparking reactions.
One person wrote on X, 'Everything is in one side and JD Vance smile one side. Meme guys start shipping few masterpieces of JD please.'
Another wrote, 'Vance delivered that with a smile and a jab perfect way to call out political theater without breaking a sweat.'
A third person commented, 'To be fair, no one knows who Alex is, but everyone knows Jose Padilla the famous criminal.'
Another user wrote, 'It's hilarious because Padilla kept saying who he was and that he's a senator and Vance playing into that by calling him the wrong name on purpose.'
Also Read: Donald Trump said Democrat Senator Alex Padilla 'looked like an illegal,' claims biographer Padilla Removed from Noem's Press Conference
On June 13, Sen. Padilla was forcibly removed and handcuffed at a media briefing in Los Angeles led by Kristi Noem on immigration. According to video footage, Padilla was escorted into a hallway, shoved face-first to the ground, and handcuffed.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed Padilla did not properly identify himself and alleged he lunged toward Secretary Noem.
Padilla disputes the account. He said he had been waiting for a separate scheduled briefing with military officials when he learned Noem was in the same building and decided to attend her media event.
"I was there peacefully," he told reporters. "At one point, I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room, I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Time of India

29 minutes ago

• Time of India

Iran's Shahed Drone STORM 'Cripples' Israel; IDF Hunts Down IRGC Commander, Quds Force Official

Trump Puts Americans In Iran At Risk? Hundreds Flee As U.S. Mulls Attack On Tehran's Nuke Sites Reuters reported that hundreds of Americans have fled Iran in the last week amid escalation in tensions with Israel. The news agency quoted an U.S. State Department cable on the crisis. It said that while many escaped without any issues, a few faced delays and harassment. Remember, Iran and the U.S. don't share diplomatic ties and hence, it is getting difficult for Donald Trump to pull out Americans from the conflict zone. The cable underscores that Americans in Iran are at a risk as the U.S. president mulls attack on Iran's underground nuclear facility. Watch. 3.9K views | 1 hour ago

Mint

30 minutes ago

• Mint

California governor attended wine-fundraiser as LA burned in protests? Report claims ‘he was walking like…'

Governor of California Gavin Newsom was seen at a wine-tasting charity event at his vineyard earlier this month. He had thrown on a pair of sunglasses and sipped wine at a luxurious gathering in his sun-drenched vineyard amid the chaotic anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, according to a report by the New York Post. The posh event known as the 'Vineyard Vibes' took place at Odette Estate Winery in Napa Valley on the afternoon of June 7, aiming to raise funds for the Plumpjack Foundation, established by Newsom's sister. The report quoted one of the witnesses, who was shocked to see Newsom casually having a glass of wine in a V-neck T-shirt and baseball cap, just a day after violent protests erupted across his city. 'I couldn't believe it,' the report quoted a person who photographed the Democrat at the wine-tasting event. 'He was just walking around like this was an everyday occurrence," it added. However, more than 400 miles away from the event, violent protests broke out in downtown Los Angeles, where some threw Molotov cocktails at authorities, while a few vehicles were set on fire. The violence began after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids on illegal migrants, escalating to a level where the US President Donald Trump called in the National Guard despite opposition from Newsom, who criticised the Republican for escalating the situation. Newsom was present at a wine-tasting charity event for nearly 90 minutes, the report quoted a person aware of the development. On the same day, Trump sent troops to control the violence. The report mentioned that the event included 'contemporary yet sophisticated' wines, live jazz music and local sources pizza and smash burgers. 'It's the perfect kick-off to summer fun,' it cited the promotional language of the event. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Newsom clarified that he 'proudly attended' the annual fundraiser for the UCSF Cancer Centre in 'honour of his mother, who died of breast cancer,' the report said.

Business Standard

34 minutes ago

• Business Standard

Vance blames California Democrats for protests, mocks Sen Padilla as 'Jose'

Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command centre came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted AP Los Angeles Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fuelled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to US Sen Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as Jose Padilla, a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids. I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is. They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,' Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots, Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command centre came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the US's future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement, Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. What happened here was a tragedy, Vance added. You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully. Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear. Speaking at City Hall, Bass said Vance was spewing lies and utter nonsense. She said hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted by the federal government on a stunt. How dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace, Bass said. In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to Jose Padilla, saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the dirty bomb mission. It later emerged through US interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the mission was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case. Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law. Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfil Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest US city, home to 3.8 million people. Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years. Newsom has depicted the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. I hope we get that back on track, Newsom wrote on X. We are counting on you, Mr. Vice President. Vance did not mention either request during his appearance on Friday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)