White House Communications Director Steven Cheung: Senator Padilla was 'acting like an unhinged bitch'

https://www.notus.org/newsletters/brave-senator-or-unhinged

You didn’t see what you thought you saw in those videos of Sen. Alex Padilla, Republicans and the White House said in unison Thursday. What the White House is saying: “The more and more the media plays it,” communications director Steven Cheung told NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright, “the more it shows him acting like an unhinged bitch.”

West Wings past may have gone into scramble mode if a clip of a U.S. senator being handcuffed by uniformed federal law enforcement in a federal building went viral and beyond. But Jasmine found it to be business as usual yesterday afternoon. “The unbotheredness was evident,” she notes.

This administration has its story, and they’re sticking to it. “Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on its official X account. Secretary Kristi Noem said she exchanged numbers with the Democrat (presumably after his hands were again free to reach his phone) and had a productive 15-minute conversation with him. “I wish he would’ve acted that way in the beginning rather than creating a scene,” she posted on X.

In the House? A shared GOP reality. “Play stupid games, get stupid prizes,” Rep. Rich McCormick told the NOTUS Hill team. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Padilla’s actions “rise to the level of censure.” One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, told Axios that he lives in this reality, too. “I don’t think politics as theater is what our job is here,” he said, though he added, “I think that it’s never good when a senator or member of Congress gets roughed up by law enforcement.”

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