'Emotions were at 10': GOP senator slams colleague’s 'disgusting' arrest

18 June

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on March 3, 2016 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

In an article published on Tuesday, June 17, Axios' Natalie Daher laid out a timeline of Democratic officials who have been arrested in connection with President Donald Trump's immigration policies — including Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka on May 9, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin on May 13, U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver on June 10, and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) on June 12.

The most recent example Daher cites is New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate arrested at an immigration court on June 17.

Many MAGA Republicans are applauding the arrests, claiming that they were interfering with the activities of the U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE). But one conservative who is calling out Padilla's arrest as "disgusting" is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina).

Padilla discussed his arrest during a June 17 speech, and the following day, Tillis spoke out on the Senate floor.

Padilla was arrested a press conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. After being physically removed, he was thrown to the floor and handcuffed.

Tillis, during his speech, told the U.S. Senate, "Mr. President, the last thing I'm going to leave you with is: I sat on this floor yesterday while Sen. Padilla was speaking. And I have to tell you that the events that occurred — and I’m saying this because now I hear about a dustup in New York, folks — Alex Padilla, I consider a friend.… His emotions were at a 10 because of some of the things that he's seen occurring in terms of ICE detention, ICE raids."

Tillis continued, "I agree and disagree with him on some of the policy, but folks, we've got to get to a point where elected officials have to take some responsibility for their actions."

The North Carolina Republican stressed that Padilla, as a U.S. senator, had a right to be in a federal building on June 12.

Tillis told his colleagues, "Sen. Padilla should have found a better way to elevate his concerns to the secretary of Homeland Security rather than going in there and having that dust-up."

"Having said that, there were clearly people in that building that knew he was a U.S. Senator," Tillis continued. "So the minute he was removed from that situation in that briefing room, then they should have treated him with respect and allowed him to disperse. It was disgusting to me to see somebody wrestled to the floor, anybody, but particularly a U.S. senator that's in a federal building."

Watch Sen. Thom Tillis' speech at this Mediaite link.

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