Alex Padilla

Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I agree with my friend from Maryland. This has to be a moment where we just drop our political affiliations, where we decide that we are Americans; that the Constitution matters; that dissent defines America; and we say and do the right thing.

I think there is still time for our Republican colleagues here to speak out. I understand they may still want to collect more facts, but as each minute and each hour passes, it is becoming clear that the main justification seems to be simply that Senator Padilla was showing some level of disrespect.

The first comments from our Republican colleagues, I think if you are an American who cares about free speech, are really concerning. One of our colleagues in the Senate said this:

[Senator Padilla] has a responsibility to his constituents to show up at work, not to try to make a spectacle of himself.

Well, that is certainly a legitimate opinion. You can criticize any of us for engaging in a spectacle. But spectacle is not illegal. Raising your voice is not a crime in this country. Protesting your government does not, cannot, and should not result in you being delivered to the ground by law enforcement and handcuffed.

Another of our colleagues says:

Was he disruptive? [Well,] he got what he wanted.

Once again, the standard here seems to be disruption; that if you are speaking truth to power, then you are going to be met by violence.

The definition of this country, the fundamental nature of America, is that protest is not met by violence. Protest is celebrated in this Nation; that what defines America against the rest of the world, against the totality of previous human history is that we protect the right of human beings living in the United States of America to raise protest--loud protest, sometimes disruptive protest--against their government. And, frankly, we protect that right equally, whether it is a U.S. Senator or an ordinary citizen with no formal power.

So we can say today, well, this is really dangerous that a U.S. Senator got thrown to the ground and handcuffed simply because they spoke up at a press conference. But it is no more concerning that it is happening to a U.S. Senator than what is happening to many other citizens and residents of this country who, right now, are being met with equal physical force.

We don't expect any different treatment of U.S. Senators than of ordinary citizens. But many ordinary citizens in Los Angeles, right now, are being treated with the same kind of force that Alex Padilla was met with today.

So there is still time for us to come together and say: In this country, speaking truth to power, even in a disruptive way, is never rationalization for violence.

But I will tell you, the first couple of statements from my Republican colleagues are deeply worrying. They misread the fundamental nature of this country.

If we now live in a world where simple disagreements--vocal disagreements--where protest with this administration becomes justification for violence, I don't know how you can define that as America any longer.

As someone who was sitting in this Chamber--I think at this very same desk--on January 6, it shouldn't be lost on us that there are forms of political protests that are protected by this administration-- celebrated, even. And then there are forms of political protests, as you saw today, that are met with violence.

There are individuals out on the street today in America who, just a few years ago, were in this building or on the outskirts of this building beating the hell out of police officers--viciously, savagely attacking police officers; tasers to the throat; rendering those police officers unconscious; metal poles being hammered onto the heads of police officers. And in an exceptional moment, the President of the United States, in celebration of their violence, pardoned them and put them back out on the street, sending the unequivocal message that if you engage in violent protest on behalf of the White House, you get out of jail free.

Pair that together with the message that is being received by the American public now on a daily basis, most prominently and visibly today, that if you engage in peaceful protests--Senator Padilla was asking a question; he identified himself as a U.S. Senator--of the administration, you will be met by violence. You carry out violence on behalf of the White House, you are excused. You lodge normal, protected protest against this White House, you are thrown to the ground and handcuffed, even if you are a U.S. Senator, though it should not matter.

The early reaction here, it should be chilling because once this becomes normalized, I don't know how you put it back in the bottle.

We shouldn't assume that this democracy survives forever. This is a revolutionary experiment, 250 years in. It is fragile. This idea that we govern ourselves, this idea that we respect through rule and force of law people who disagree with us--0.0001 percent of humans have ever lived under a system like that in which they decide for themselves the law, their protests, even against the most powerful people in the country, is protected by law. That idea is unnatural. It is, in some ways, almost destined to fall apart.

Yet for 250 years, we have not let it fall apart. We have decided that our fealty to the idea of free speech, of protected free speech, even if it rubs up against the ruling elites, the ruling class of the White House, the most powerful people in the country in an uncomfortable way, will be protected.

For 250 years, we have together--Republicans and Democrats--decided that that principle of free speech was more important than our political stripes, than loyalty to our party's leader or our party's ideas.

At some point tonight, a Republican has to come down to this floor. At some point this weekend, some of our Republican colleagues have to speak out on behalf of this fundamental American idea, on behalf of the U.S. Senate, on behalf of our colleague.

We can still fight on tax policy and immigration policy. We can have big disagreements about the reconciliation bill. It will not harm my Republican colleagues' ability to render argument on the things that matter to them.

It is OK for us to agree that what happened to Alex Padilla 2 hours ago crosses a line. It doesn't compromise my Republican colleagues' integrity as Republicans to decide that there is still right or wrong; that not everything is black or white; that two plus two sometimes has to still equal four.

What happened to Senator Padilla should not have happened. He identified himself. It is not true that he didn't identify himself. What happened to him in the room is not justifiable; but, certainly, what happened to him outside of the room isn't justifiable. Once he was removed from the room, being thrown to the ground as he is identifying himself as a Senator, being handcuffed can't be justified.

So we are going to hang around on this floor in hopes that, at some point, somehow--and I know not all of our Republican colleagues are still in town--they speak up on behalf of this basic premise, this basic foundational idea of America: that even when protest rubs you the wrong way, even when you don't like the form or substance of it, that we are no longer the country that we love, the country that we teach our kids about, if we don't find a way to come together to object to protest being met with this kind of violence.

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