A congressional hearing quickly devolved into a shouting match between two Republicans and a Democrat who sought a subpoena for Kristi Noem over the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from a Thursday press conference.
During a Thursday hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) implored his fellow lawmakers to subpoena Noem over the incident, which saw her security team manhandle and handcuff the California Democrat after he loudly questioned the homeland security secretary about ICE raids that have led to nationwide protests.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee chairman, quickly waved off Frost’s concerns over the incident.
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“Mr. Chair, also, we were just talking about this. I want to know if you can commit to working with us so we can subpoena,” Frost began to say, before Comer cut him off.
“You’re out of order,” Comer replied.
The two congressmen briefly spoke over each other until Comer recognized MAGA firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who entered the tense scene guns blazing.
“Oh, Democrats can’t follow the rules, can’t follow the law,” she said twice.
“We need to subpoena Kristi Noem,” Frost repeated. “It’s her staff, DHS federal officers, that threw a U.S. senator to the ground.”
Greene continued to talk over the young Democrat: “There’s a privilege of the majority, and that means we’re in charge. Not your side, because you lost the election, because you supported the invasion of our country.”
Frost, Greene, and Comer all refused to back down until the chairman grew exasperated with the back-and-forth.
“Shut up. Just shut up,” Comer told Frost, who had repeatedly asked him to commit to subpoenaing Noem.
“No, you’re not gonna tell me to shut up,” Frost hit back.
“He’s been out of order six times,” Comer said of Frost. “He is trying to get on MSNBC. You probably knocked somebody off MSNBC to get on there.”
The chairman then handed the floor over to Greene, who lobbed a bizarre accusation at Frost without providing evidence.
“I think because he’s been arrested as a former antifa member, right?” she said of Padilla, referring to the far-left movement. “He’s a former antifa member… Not surprised.”
Frost appeared to be in disbelief as he asked for Greene’s remarks to be taken off the record.
The dramatic interaction ended when Greene turned her attention to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to ask questions.
Several Democrats have rallied around Padilla following his wild takedown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an immediate probe into the “un-American” incident: “To look at this video and see what happened reeks—reeks—of totalitarianism," he said. “This is not what democracies do.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed Schumer in a post, stating that those behind “the brazen and aggressive manhandling of Senator Padilla” must be “held accountable.”
Noem called Padilla’s interruption “inappropriate,” while Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin slammed the senator for choosing “disrespectful political theater.” Noem and Padilla spoke for 15 minutes after the incident, McLaughlin said.
