Meet the Press NOW — June 12

Welcome to Meet the Press. Now, I'm Kelly o'. Donnell. And we begin with breaking news as tensions continue to escalate over the president's deployment of military troops to quell pockets of unrest in Los Angeles and assist with immigration rates.

The turmoil and instability on full display as we witness what was really an extraordinary and unsettling moment in Los Angeles as Homeland Security Secretary Christina was speaking about the White House's use of the military, and she was interrupted by California senior Democratic U.S. senator Alex Padilla. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city. So I want to say thank you to every single person that has been able to do this.

Also, I want to talk. I also want to talk about specifically. So that's a US Senator. And his team was recording the incident from inside the room as law enforcement officials restrained the senator.

Sir. Hands up. Hands up. Senator.

I have questions for the secretary because the fact of the matter is half a dozen violent criminals. Cool. To reporters just moments ago about the incident. And here's some of what he had to say.

If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cuts, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable. This incident has already drawn widespread condemnation from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, it's sickened my stomach.

And the Congressional Hispanic Caucus demanding an investigation and calling this an assault against a US Senator. The Department of Homeland Security has put out a statement calling Senator Padilla's actions disrespectful political theater and saying that Secret Service thought he was an attacker. DHS also noting that Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after the incident. Now, this unprecedented episode happened just hours after President Trump once again defended his use of the National Guard in Los Angeles, while continuing to claim without evidence that the protests are paid professionals.

When it comes to Los Angeles or other cities, if we see other cities are gearing up and these people are agitators, they're paid, they're professionals, they're insurrectionists, they're troublemakers, they're all of those things. But I believe they're paid. And we're going to find out through Pam Bondi and her great staff, her great People, justice, who they are. If we didn't go, Los Angeles right now would be on fire.

It would be a disaster. We're going to be speaking with a member of the Democratic leadership, Congressman Ted Liu, who is also a member of the California delegation. And that'll happen in just a moment. But let's begin with our team of NBC reporters.

NBC News correspondent David Noriega joins me now from Los Angeles, along with NBC News law enforcement reporter Andrew Blankstein, who's also in la and also with me as NBC News Capitol chief, Capitol Hill chief correspondent, you know who I mean, Ryan Nobles and NBC News senior White House correspondent Dave Guerrero. So they've got all the guys with me now. Team NBC here. Let's break this down.

David, tell us what you know about what happened during this press conference with Secretary Noemi. And of course, we understand that these are official events and any disturbance is certainly everyone's on a short leash and a short trigger here. What has the reaction been now that we've had a moment to catch our breath and see what unfolded? Well, Kelly, the moment that's really critical and very much in dispute is the moment leading up to what we saw in that video, which is where, you know, at the beginning of the video that we have officers already have their hands on Senator Padilla and are forcibly removed from the room.

And then we see that quite stunning video of him being forced to the ground, pinned to the ground, and, and handcuffs. What led to that moment is what is in dispute. Senator Padilla says that he was there and has been in LA exercising his official congressional oversight duties over the ICE enforcement actions that's been happening here in the LA area over the last few days. The Department of Homeland security spokesperson Trish McLaughlin said that Senator Padilla behaving in such a way that he was perceived as a threat or an attacker, that he had lunged at.

Secretary no, none of that, of course, is visible in the video, but that is what both parties are saying. The response from the political establishment has been very switched. Governor Newsom put a statement on X, for example, describing the actions as outrageous, describing Senator Pierre as one of the most decent people I know, describing the actions also, I should say, as dictatorial, which is of a piece with Governor Newsom's language that he's been using to describe the Trump administration's actions over the last few days in terms of deploying the National Guard, deploying Marines, which he's described as a red line threatening nothing less than American democracy. We also heard from Senator Padilla's fellow Senator Adam Schiff also strongly condemning this, I expect will be remembered, also strongly contended, I expect to be hearing from other members of the California Democratic establishment.

Senator Petilla is very much a part of the California Democratic mainstream political establishment, specifically the part of that establishment that comes from a long history of Mexican American politics in the LA area. That is the world that he came up in. That is the world he represents. Many people in that community and in the adjacent community of nonprofits, advocacy groups, etc.

Are quite stunned by this, quite shocked by this. And we're gonna be getting responses from people in civil society here in LA and Northern California, generally speaking. Kelly Dan, I'll be curious when we know if those law enforcement personnel who detained him, if they live in California, because he is a well known figure, a long time statewide office holder, and usually senators are treated with a lot of difference. And so that was such a striking moment.

Let's talk a little bit about the content of what Secretary Noem was saying. She used the word liberate and President Trump has to to liberate Los Angeles. What is your sense about how that kind of language matches with what you're seeing on the ground? Well, I thought it was interesting that she used the word liberate and then described that she was liberating the state from basically its elected officials, you know, Governor Newsom among them.

So I'm not sure ex exactly what she meant by that, but the word has been used in the context refer to the unrest in the protests that we've seen. And I will say that the protests have been, especially in the last couple days, very peaceful, relatively small, very much overwhelmed by the number of law enforcement agents from local, state and county agencies that have been responding with pretty intense crackdowns, preventing these protests from gaining any kind of scene, from getting numbers from blocking roadways for anything more than a few minutes at a time. There's a very small group of protesters outside the federal building. Currently it's smaller than it was yesterday, which in turn was smaller than it was the day before.

Kelly it's important to consider though that we're going into the weekend with a lot of organized marches, you know, with the participation of labor unions, other members of civil society. There's a strong desire here in LA right now to organize large and peaceful marches and to prevent the kind of, you know, raucous violent behavior that we saw over the weekend with people doing things like setting way more taxes on fire, throwing objects off the highway passes onto CHP patrol vehicles. The people in LA civil Society that I'm talking to are, on the one hand, they sense the need to really show strength in numbers going into the weekend, while also making sure that we don't see any kind of behavior that could be seen as justifying the presence of National Guard troops, much less active duty Marines. Kelly and I know, David, you have so much more to get to in terms of getting out there and covering this.

Thank you for making time to be with us and to give us that update. I appreciate it. Let me turn now to Andrew, who covers law enforcement, and I'm sure you had a take on how this unfolds in the moment that could probably help our audience to understand this. When law enforcement begins to detain someone, they're really, they're working off muscle memory there.

What was your sense of how this played out and if they were following procedures, as you understand, what's your take about what happened in the room? My understanding is from, from law enforcement sources familiar, they did not immediately recognize the senator as far as the law enforcement was present there. We're told that it included Secret Service and FBI police, which is separate from agents that are doing the casework. As he approached and asked the questions, they then, as you saw in the video, shuttle him quickly out of the room and then put him to the ground and put him in a zip tie.

It's pretty well established that when you do that, that's a detention, however long it lasts. And there's people that I've talked to that said once you do that, you're. You're kind of, you're crossing the Rubicon. And then to do it quickly and undo it is almost to be admitting a mistake.

But regardless of that, clearly there's going to be a lot of questions asked. You know, obviously this was described as, on a Homeland Security site, as political theater. But if anything, what we've seen in the last week and these protests started kind of, it hasn't even been a week where there was a raid warrant service on an apparel company in downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of people kind of converged on that to protest, and that's gone then to hundreds and even thousands and then spread across the United States.

So at the top, there was the clip that you played where they described this kind of this, the politicians being criticized here, but it's all the way around. In the meanwhile, in the meantime, the LAPD has to continue to deal with these running protests, and it's long days for officers and long nights, and a lot of people are getting injured. Thank you, and I appreciate that so much. Stay safe out there.

I know you've been out on the streets quite a bit. And Ryan, let me turn to you, our chief Capitol Hill correspondent. The reaction there has, has been, I'm sure, quick, especially among Democrats. What are you hearing from lawmakers who I'm sure could see their own lives in that.

When. When they saw what was happening with Senator Padilla. Yeah, Kelly. It was pretty remarkable how quickly Democratic senators in particular mobilized to respond almost in real time to what they were seeing on their phones of this situation with Senator Padilla.

Many of them took immediately to the floor of the Senate to take advantage of the personal privilege they have as a member of the Senate to decry what they saw, to criticize the administration for their handling of it, and rush to the defense of their comrade in Senator Alex Padilla. Listen to what some of them said moments after this video first emerged. Mr. President, I just saw something that sickened my stomach.

The manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on. I yield the floor. I'm just disgusted by what I saw.

He went to this briefing. He had questions for the secretary. He has every right to ask questions. Indeed, that is his responsibility.

And to be treated the way he was, to be essentially brought to the ground and shackled after identifying himself, is a disgraceful action. And there were even a few Republicans that had criticism for the way the DHS handled this. There was obviously other Republicans who either said that hadn't seen the video, or said that the Department of Homeland Security acted appropriately. So the fallout from this, Kelly, I think, is safe to say, is just beginning.

Democrats are calling for hearings. They want Christy Noem, the DHS secretary, brought in front of their various committee panels to answer questions about what exactly happened here. This, I think, is just the beginning of what could be a long story as a result of what we saw play out in California. And you and I both know that when a senator travels, they have staff around them.

Certainly Secretary Noem was a member of Congress. She would recognize Senator Padilla. It is out of context, I know, but you're right. So many questions will be forthcoming.

We sometimes see lawmakers who are arrested for acting civil disobedience. A very different kind of scenario than what we saw play out here. Ryan, keep us posted as you hear more from lawmakers. We appreciate it.

Thank you. And so now we go to Gabe, and there is certainly some concern about how the White House will respond to this. We have asked the president, we've asked officials there about how they might go into trying to de escalate things. This does not seem to be an incident where de escalation is present.

It seems things heated up even more. What can you tell us? Actually, just within the past few minutes. Listen, since we've been on the aircraft, we just got a new statement from the White House commenting on the situation with Senator Padilla.

I'm going to read from that statement right now and it goes to what you were talking about with Ryan, this idea of identification. The Senator identifying himself Secretary Noem also disposed on social media. But this is a new White House statement. It says Padilla stormed the press conference without wearing Senate pin or previously identifying himself as security, yelled and lunged towards Secretary Noem.

Padilla didn't want answers. He wanted attention. The White House says Padilla embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature theater kid stunt. But it is telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in la.

That is according to a White House spokesperson. So certainly the White House drawing the battle lines here, digging in on this confrontation with Senator d'. I. And we did see something that was notable today from the President where he seemed to acknowledge, in response to a question that there have been concerns expressed about the displacement of those who've been detained for these immigration rates, who are providing necessary work, whether, whether it's in the hotel industry, whether it is in the farming communities and so forth.

And then also posted about it and seem to walk that back. Bring us up to speed, certainly, Kelly, look, to me, as someone who covers immigration, this did strike me as a significant shift, although the White House is insisting it. It isn't really, but this is what happened. The President posted on social media, as you mentioned, that changes are coming because he's been hearing from the business community.

You see that right there. Great farmers and people in the hotel leisure business has been stating that a very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good longtime workers away from them and those jobs being almost impossible to replace. Just a short time ago, Kelly, you know as well anyone, the White House was insisting that there were no exceptions to this crackdown on illegal immigration, no matter where they were. But that did seem to be a little bit of change.

And the President was asked about that point earlier today in the East Room. Let's listen. Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They worked for them for 20 years.

They're not citizens, but they turned out to be great. And we have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not. We can't do that to our farmers and leisure too hotels.

We're going to have to use a lot of common sense on that. We just heard that from the President, Kelly. But around that same time, just a short time after that, we also heard from the Department of Homeland Security that just announced that it was terminating work authorizations from for immigrants from certain countries, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. And that would affect some 532,000 people that would be leaving the workforce.

So in some cases it appears to be some contradictory policies today from the administration. We'll be working to get clarity that in the days ahead. It really is a stark conflict, Gabe, because the president is always telegraphing where he's going next and he is sensitive to the issues when certain sectors of business bring things to his attention. And so that's certainly a space to watch.

Thank you, Gabe, we appreciate it. Now I want to turn to some of what is happening with the legal challenges as this always follows, we end up in the courts. And for that we have our legal reporter Gary Grumbach here, who is going to get the latest report on what is happening with the state of California responding to this federalizing of the National Guard by going to court. So, Gary, welcome.

Good to have you here. This is happening this afternoon. As if we didn't have enough to keep track of this. Tell me, what do you expect and what is the message from the litigants in California against the Trump administration?

So this is a lawsuit that was brought by the California Attorney General against the Trump administration, trying to ask for a temporary restraining order to stop the federalized National Guard. And the Marines should be on the streets of Los Angeles. They say if you want to protect the federal buildings across la, that's perfectly fine. If you want to protect the personnel on those federal buildings, on the federal property, that's perfectly fine.

But they've got the prototypes under control. They say the LAPD and take places, they can handle it. And they do not want the police to be part of the ICE raves that are going on across the board. I was going to ask you, do they make a decision about protecting federal law enforcement personnel if those personnel, ICE officers, are out in the community conducting raids?

So they said they, of course, cannot stop the ICE from conducting these raids across Los Angeles. What they can try to stop is these National Guardsmen and these Marines from being part of that from helping protect the ICE raids while they're ongoing. That is something that LA is trying to, the California Attorney General is trying to stop you and California Train General says without these, these Marines, without these National Guardsmen, they say in a sort of fiery way LA would be burning. They say that LA would not be able to conduct business and to go about regular business without this help.

Now sometimes when we to you it is an emergency situation, sometimes there are full arguments where both sides get to really litigate this. What's your expectation on it? So because this is a temporary restraining order, this is sort of the first step in this long, what's going to be a very long legal process. So they will get their chance to each give their arguments on both sides.

But because it's a temporary restraining order, this only if the judge orders the police that the National Guard and Marines remove. It's only for 14 days. And within the next 14 days if that does happen, they're going to have time to further brief this and further call some legal arguments now. And so that does give us more of an urgent sort of timetable.

Do you think the judge could act quickly? Oh, I expect the judge to come up with some sort of answer yes or no here by the end of the hearing tonight. So at 5:35 Eastern Time, don't get in the traffic early. We need you at your post.

Thank you Gary. We appreciate it very much. And coming up, a top House Democrat from California will react live to this incident surrounding Senator Padilla. So don't go anywhere.

And plus a live report from the Capitol on a busy and contentious day of testimony from blue state governors who are defending their track records on immigration and public safety. You're watching me the Press now. Welcome back. We're glad you're still with us.

This was a busy and contentious day on Capitol Hill as Governors Kathy Hochul, J.B. pritzker and Tim Walt, all Democrats, appeared before the House Oversight Committee to testify about their so called sanctuary state policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. There were a lot of fireworks including this moment when news of the incident surrounding Senator Padilla had reached members. Florida Democratic Congressman Natural Frost.

He disrupted the committee to make a motion to subpoena the Secretary of Homeland Security. That's Christino. And he was denied by the Chairman Comer. And Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had something to say.

I have a point of order. State your point. We need to subpoena. That's not.

A chair recognizes this. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Reclaiming my time.

Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. Oh, Democrats can't follow the rules, can't follow law. Okay, so the fireworks didn't stop there.

Earlier in the hearing, Republican members asking about the governors, about specific instances of violence committed by undocumented immigrants in their communities, and Democrats attacking President Trump's deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles. And there was one striking moment when Florida Congressman Actual Frost, we saw in that clip, asked the governors how they would respond to threats of arrest from border czar Tom Holman. You know, he made that threat and then pulled it back regarding Governor Newsom. He floated that idea.

And so Frost wanted to know if this is something that other lawmakers would be, would be able to handle. If Tom Holman comes to Albany to arrest me, I'll say go for it. You can't intimidate a governor. What is this country coming to when people can threaten us on social media, on cable news, and try to stop us from doing our jobs?

If Tom Holman were to come to try to arrest us, my me rather I can say first of all that he can try. I can also tell you that I will stand in the way of Tom Holman going after people who don't deserve to be frightened in their communities, who don't deserve to be threatened, terrorized. I would rather that he came and arrested me than do that to the people of my state. I think threatening, aroused on elected officials.

Congressman, it doesn't help any of us. And Governor Pritchard's right. Our citizens are scared and angry and it's not necessary. We can fix this with a bipartisan border bill.

Help us out. Building the narrative there. Joining me now on Capitol Hill is our colleague Melanie Zenona. And Melanie, I mean, fireworks.

It might as well be the 4th of July from what we saw at the Oversight Committee today. Can you tell us what did you take away from this here? You got to see it in full. What's the takeaway?

Yeah, there were a number of explosive moments today as these Democratic governors went toe to toe with Republicans on the committee over Trump's immigration policies. Governor Tim Walls, who was just the vice presidential nominee, he was grilled repeatedly by Republicans for comparing ICE agents to Gestapo. Republicans were demanding an apology over and over again, but Walls did not back down and he did not issue an apology. I want you to watch on those moments.

We'll talk about it on the other side. Governor, do you and other Democrat politicians understand why referencing ICE as Gestapo, it is offensive? So you're calling ICE agents modern day Nazis. You know, the attacks on ICE agents that took place in Los Angeles over the weekend.

Don't you regard your dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric as a problem? You said earlier that the ICE agents are under the orders of President Trump or modern day Gestapo. Do you realize how disgusting a phrase that is, considering the history of Nazi Germany? Would you like to recant that statement?

What I said, Congressman, and I have a long history of sporting law enforcement. I said President Trump was using them as his modern day. Now that second lawmaker that you heard here, that was Tom Emmer. He is a member of the he's also from Minnesota, Tim Wolsey's home state.

He doesn't even belong on the pave that he was waved on in orders to go face to face with his home state governor. And that last line I could have heard there, that was Brian Donalds of Florida. He's actually running for governor. So, you know, while this hearing was mostly about policy, there was a lot of political dynamics at play because there were a number of other homemakers on both sides of the aisle who are either running for higher office, potentially hiring, buying governor bids, or some of these governors being floated for 2028.

So in some ways, this hearing is also kind of like an audition process for some of these members. It was a showcase for other candidates. And I expect we'll see some of these clips later on in ads and so forth. There were also some questions that were off the designated topic today dealing with obviously the immigration issues.

But some people also wanted to question Governor Walls about his knowledge of former President Biden. Again, he was on the ticket with Vice President Harris. What was that about? Yeah, of course, Republicans wanted the opportunity to bring someone who was close to the administration because they've been itching to go after Biden and what they say has been to cover up of his mental decline.

That's something that Congressional Republicans are actually investigating on a House Oversight committee that held that hearing today. They're also bringing in a number of former Biden officials for transcribed interviews in the coming days and weeks to try to highlight that issue. So undoubtedly they use this opportunity today with Walls in the hot seat to talk about that very issue. So we could sort of divide this in the themes that the two parties wanted.

Republicans wanted to talk about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in the states that these governors represent. And Democrats also wanted to really get at the agenda of the Trump administration where they have points to make. How would you describe their ability to get those narratives through? Yeah, well, Kelly, it's also important to point out here this hearing was actually planned over a month ago.

And it just happened to come at this really timely moment where we're seeing these ICE raids playing out in California. We're seeing these protests play out and the federal response to them. And so for Republic, it was an opportunity to highlight what they say are these liberal run cities that are out of control. They really took the chance to highlight some of the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

They feel like that is a strong message for them. And that's something that Trump ran on, obviously as a candidate. But for Democrats on the flip side here, it was an opportunity to highlight what they say is then the overreach by the Trump administration, federalizing National Guard troops, deploying active duty Marines. So both parties really had the chance to talk about this hot button issue of immigration in their own respective ways.

And obviously this is an issue that is only continuing to escalate between the two parties right now, honing very different messages. Mel, thank you so much. We're glad you were with us. And up next, we'll be turning back to that stunning incident in California where we will hear from a congressman from California who's the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

He's standing by, so don't go anywhere. You're watching Beat THE PRESS now. Welcome back. With me now is Democratic lawmaker from California, Congressman Ted Liu.

He is the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus. And I know you flip your schedule around, be with us to be able to give us your insight. So thank you for that. To start off, what was your reaction when you saw the video and heard what happened to Senator at that news conference with Secretary no.

Thank you, Kelly, for your question. House Democrats have been standing up and fighting back against the lawless actions of ICE in detaining US Citizens, deporting children, some of whom are US Citizens, and stripping asylum seekers who are here legally seeking asylum of their rights. And now they escalated by forcibly taking down Senator Padilla. Why?

Because he dared to ask questions of Secretary Noem. Why is every Noem afraid to answer questions? Let me give you a little bit of the response from a spokesperson for Secretary Noem about this episode. And the statement goes like this.

It says Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on his lapel as he lunged toward secretary Noem. Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and he did not comply with officers repeated commands. The Secret Service thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.

So what is your response to this. We all saw it play out. He was not in the student time we would see around Capitol Hill. I did not see the pin, which you have the pin on your lapel there.

That's a different one for senators. But he did say, I'm Senator Padilla. What is your reaction to how they've characterized DHS spokesperson is lying. And that should not be surprising because the Trump administration lies all the time.

This incident happened in the federal building in my district. To get into that federal building, there's immense security and you go through all sorts of security checks. So people who are in that room have already been checked by security. And as you notice, Senator Padilla identified himself.

And if American people are watching this and are upset, I urge you to righteously exercise your right to peacefully protest. Righteously exercise your right to monitor ICE agents who are hiding behind masks. And righteously exercise your right to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble. That's how we take our country back.

We understand that Senator Padilla and Secretary Noemi did have an opportunity to speak behind the scenes. I haven't heard exactly what that conversation's been about. Do you hold her responsible or do you think these officers were sort of engaged once they began to. I detained someone that just kept going.

You know, we don't really know what was in their minds. And if they recognize Senator Padilla, even though he is the senior senator from California. We don't know if they are from California. What is your sense of who should be accountable for this moment?

I hold Donald Trump and the Republicans enable him directly responsible for creating a culture of fear, for separating children from their parents, for making America not America anymore because of the lawless actions they've engaged in. And I want to know that the American people rising up and peacefully protesting is working. Today Donald Trump posted on social media that he's reversing part of his mass deportation policies against agriculture industry as well as a major hospitality industry. And so what the American people were doing and standing up and making voices her is working.

Donald Trump is backtracking. Trump again is chickening out. I want to read a little bit of what Secretary Noem was saying at the time that this incident happened. She had been speaking for a few moments and she said that we're here staying behind here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor, referring to Newsom and Bass, have placed on this country and tried to insert into that city.

So when she uses the word liberate and these of Course, democratically elected officials in one of the largest states we have. She uses the word liberate. How did that strike you? Do you think that might have prompted Senator Padilla to interrupt?

Secretary Noem is living in a fantasy world. California, under the leadership of Gavin Newsom and mayors like Mayor Bass, we are now the fourth largest economy in the world. And what we see in California is a thriving economy. And we have lots of people from all different places in the world making the state a great state.

And Secretary Noem couldn't deal with answering questions to sacrifice and DHS forcibly assaulted him and took him down. That's completely unacceptable. Before I let you go, I realize you're in D.C. you're not on the ground in California to assess what's happening right this minute, but what are you hearing from your district office about how you would characterize the protests that are happening now?

We're several days into it. The people who are protesting peacefully or doing what they can under the US Constitution, they're actually allowed to do that. Looting, burning cars, destroying property or crimes. If you engage that, you will be prosecuted.

And I want to know all these peaceful protests in LA across the country are working. Donald Trump, based on you Associate Pressbook today is at 60 disapproval. What Donald Trump is doing is not popular. And make sure that people go out and pierce me protest.

That is how we take our country back. Do you think the curfew has helped to turn the temperature down at all? Yes, I want to know. This curfew is like for like a one square mile area because most of la, the people are protesting peacefully and I commend their base for what she's doing in this one square mile area to make it better.

And LA is a very sprawling city and county. We know that over the next several days there are other protests around the country that are being planned. And certainly the incident with Senator may prompt others to want to use their voices. What concerns, if any, do you have about how this could continue in other cities and might there be a loss of control?

I encourage people to exercise their First Amendment rights and their freedom to assemble. And I just want to say it is working. Donald Trump reversed part of his mass deportation policies because they're unpopular because American people start rising up peacefully. And I just want the mayor to understand that your actions and making your voices heard is having an effect and keep righteously doing what the US Constitution grants you the right to do.

And Congressman, we talked about that change from the president in an earlier segment before you were on and we were seeing to get mixed messages. President clearly said changes are coming. He acknowledged the hotel, hospitality and farm community businesses that have been affected. Actually said there's some very good people who are working, I'm paraphrasing, who are working and have been disrupted by this.

But also the White House is saying that they're going to step up action. So we'll have to see how much this kind of backtrack, if we can call it that, from the president, how that will play out. But clearly you want to highlight that. Well, obviously, the White House has to listen to Donald Trump, and he's very clear today that he's reversing part of his deportation policy.

And I think he's seen not only people rising up, but actually the harm to our economy. Inflation has increased, jobless claims have increased. Food prices have increased 0.3% at the grocery store. And so Donald Trump understands his policies are also harming our economy.

Sir, you're what we call emergency booking. You responded when we called, but it was an incident. I thank you for that, for making time out of your busy day. We appreciate, especially from your vantage point in California.

Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you, Kelly. We're turning the panel now. And joining me on set is Aubrey Faulberg, political reporter for National Review, Ashley Etienne, former communications director for Vice President Harris and former communications director for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Brendan Buck, former advisor to House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

Lots of clout here at the table. Lots of experience. Appreciate that here. Has this been a day?

What a day. Let me start with you, Audrey, and get a sense of what is your assessment of how this played out and how these unexpected moments that pop off where there are strong feelings, there are big policy issues. What do you think happened today? Did it get more escalated or is this a turning point?

I do think that the quickness with which Democratic elected officials are rallying behind Centerpedia suggests that Democrats think this is a winning message. Since the 2024 election, you know, they lost. They've been searching for a united, a message they can unite behind that will also ignite the grassroots who have long argued for months now they're not doing enough to fight back against the Trump administration. I do think that this carries risk, though, because they're making a pretty ambitious bet by focusing so much on legal immigration, one of the top issues Trump campaigned on, of course, that voters will resonate with their argument that this is there are a lot of due process concerns, know images of Democratic officials being Handcuffed, that will change voters minds come 2026.

So we'll have to see. But I expect over the next few weeks that we should continue to see Democratic officials kind of insert themselves into these sort of confrontations with the Torrent association, actually. What did you think? Senator Padilla is incredibly well known in California.

I know he may not be recognizable to everyone, but he's the senior senator. He did identify himself. And I don't know if it is a part of the law enforcement process that once they are engaged that they keep going. I'm not sure we'll have to learn more about that.

But he did identify himself and Secretary Noem would certainly know Alex Padilla. So that was surprising to me. What is your take about what happened there? Was this just a moment that went off the rails?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, not just in the room where we could see it, but it's more important. That's what happened outside of that room when they threw him to the ground, manhandled him and handcuffed him. But again, this is part of the callousness from which we've seen the White House operate on this particular issue.

Arresting pregnant, trying to deport four year olds that are sick and their families, you know, conducting raids in churches and clinics and just indiscriminately picking up people and deporting them and without any sort of due process. And family members have no sense of where, where their loved ones are. So it's really just exemplifies the callousness of this particular administration. But let me just respond, if you don't mind.

I do think that one thing that the Democrats are doing and doing very well, the advantage that they have is they have public sentiment on their side. The president's currently polling in 30s, low 30s, low 40s, even on the issue of immigration, even on issue of deportation and the issue of due process. So Democrats are in a winning position, but they have to contain the violence. If they don't contain the violence, then the narrative will get out of out of their hands.

So they have to prioritize containing violence. But this is not an immigration issue. And that's not how Democrats are playing it. They're playing it as a abuse of power, a violation of the Constitution, a violation of states rights.

I think that's where it because you might be able to convince some Republicans on this issue and certainly the images of most extremists will carry on well beyond these events. And they have political power in that way. Brendan when you hear Secretary Neal muse the word liberate talk about socialist leaders when she's referring to the elected leaders of Los Angeles, state of California and so forth. Is that effective?

It's a quarter for sure. That's why they do it. It's performative. All of this is performative.

I think that's my biggest problem with everything that happened today. This is not an immigration debate. This is just a new low point in our politics and it is so depressing. I don't care what they were arguing about, what this was all about.

To your point, Christy Home should know that he's a senator. In any other context, she would say, hold on a second, that's the senator back off. Or they would reconcile afterwards and say, that was a big mistake. I'm sorry about that.

But nobody's doing that. Everyone's back in the corner. Everybody's Mike Johnson talking about how me to censure Alice Bea for interrupting Christine Noem. It makes me so sad for what our politics become.

I don't care what. There's going to be people who say, he was overreacting, she was overreacting. I think everybody's just going to check out of this. I think I'm so sick of what politics has become right now.

There's no anybody working towards anything. This is a respectful disagreement. This is just performance and it's really sad. One of the things I wanted to get your opinions on today happened with the president when he was doing bill signing and then took a number of questions and he was asked about the protests that had branded themselves as no kings.

And he responded to that. Let's play that clip so you can hear it where the president, who some of the Democrats have accused of being imperial in his power. Here's how he responded to the suggestion about being a king. I don't feel like a king.

I have to go through hell to get stuff. A bird. The king would say, I'm not going to get this. The king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking to him.

He wouldn't have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune and say, fellas, you got to pull this off. And after years, we got no, no, we're not a king. We're not a king at all. Well, that's interesting.

So he responded to that in specific. He also earlier said that he was pleased he could sign legislation as opposed to an executive order because the legislation has legs and permanence. But certainly his critics accuse him of being expanding in his presidential power. Every president bristles the hoops you have to jump through to get things done.

Congress drives him crazy and all that. I mean, certainly this is a president who would much rather have much power than authority as he could. I think that's very clear. He has ridiculed interesting in Congress.

But as my focus, he didn't seem like, whatever you do, that's fine by me. I'm just gonna go over here around the signs of the borders. I can do all these things. So he doesn't have, I think, of natural respect for the structures of our divided government that normally people who ascend to the presidency, cabinet, it shows itself every day.

Do you think the king analogy, which again, protesters have used and dubbed some of their organized efforts, has no kings? Do you think that has legs? Absolutely. I think he's.

Did he play into it? Well, Trump has never hit the ball. He's always been very clear. I mean, Steve Bannon and Steve Miller, all those guys said in the Trump administration, Trump 1.0, that the objective was to expand the authority of the presidency.

And we've seen that play out in so many different ways, not just on the issue of immigration, but him sort of violating a court order, him instituting an executive order, the most recent one, that's pre emptive and not reactionary. So everything that this president has done in his posture and the way he presents himself is that he is an authoritarian, and we're headed in that particular direction. So I think it does have legs. I think it's.

There's some credibility to it. But the question is, is whether or not we can contain that narrative as Democrats and continue to again, expand and demonstrate to American people why it actually matters to them. Because if you can't make the case of why it actually matters that the President's trying to expand his authority and is violating the Constitution and states rights, then it's going to be hard to make that accessible to people in an everyday way. Did you think that the President was rolling back his views a little bit today when he said changes will be made in the post, and then talked about concerns about immigration impact, the raids impact on business sectors like hospitality, like the farm community.

So we've got to use common sense. Did you see that as a shift in the President's views? A little bit, yes. And I do think that that is in part in response to some Republican congressmen, like Carlos Jimenez, Tony Gonzalez, raising concerns about exactly what you're just talking about with, you know, businesses and farmers relying on a lot of these undocumented immigrants as labor.

So it'll be interesting to see kind of where this goes. But again, I think with the federalism concerns, Democrats are going to lean into this. Heard that a lot during the oversight hearing today on the with Governor Shady Pritzker, Hochul and Walls where Democrats are consistently saying there's overreach here. Gavin Newsom didn't want the troops to come in here.

So what do we wait to see kind of where and usually Republicans are all for states rights. And that's, that's the kind of strange. Yes, very much so. When you hear some of the concerns about overreach, not having a governor's consent to have National Guard, would you envision in red states if there are active raids or any unrest, that this would play out differently?

That's an interesting question. I think the risk here for Democrats again is that there are images now of protesters holding Molotov cocktails of that unidentified, you know, masked protesters stand a police car waving the Mexican flag. Republicans look at that and they say this is exactly what we're looking for in the imagery. Right.

And that they're going to play those advertisements over and over and over again. The B roll Democrats saying this is just peaceful protesting. Right. You know, again, we heard Ted Lu saying, urging people not to loot and to protest, not to protest violently, but they can't control that.

So if over the next few days and weeks, if these continue and kind of blow up, Democrats need to be careful about how their messaging shifts on this. The key, though, is, as you see, Governor Newsom said there's 200 plus arrests yesterday, last night. So he's on top of it. Democrats are on top of it.

But I think the other major concern is whether or not you're going to see in states like Texas where there's, there's protests happening in El Paso and other places that reduce I think you're absolutely right. And whether or not they'll put pressure on Republicans. And on this very busy day, we've got to leave our conversation there. Thank you so much.

So glad we're here, Audrey, Brendan Ashley, and still to come, a deeper dive into the legality and limits of the president's military deployments in Los Angeles, which are the subject of a major federal court hearing that is underway now. You're watching MEET THE Press now. Welcome back. A federal judge in San Francisco is weighing arguments in California's lawsuit against the Trump administration over the federal deployment of national guard troops and U.S.

marines in the state. Those troops were sent to major cities, including Los Angeles and Sacramento. The Justice Department says the move is necessary to protect federal agents and federal property during the recent civil unrest that's been going on for several days now. But California officials call it federal overreach and are asking for an emergency restraining order to block the administration.

And joining me now is Elizabeth Goyjean, senior director at the Brennan center for Justice. Elizabeth, thank you for being with us. We hope you can help us to understand what this hearing is about. The judge is hearing arguments now, as I understand it.

And this is about California's request to limit the scope of the National Guard and Marines in what they can do in California in civil environment. How do you expect this to play out? Well, they have some very strong arguments California does in this lawsuit. Ordinarily, federal troops, including the federalized National Guard, are not permitted to engage in law enforcement activities domestically, including coiling civil unrest, unless there is an express statute or provision of Congress that allows them to do that.

The Insurrection act is a law that allows the military laws, the president, to deploy federal troops for that purpose. But the president is not relying on the Insurrection Act. He's relying on an obscure law that has never been used previously as a standalone authority to quell civil unrest. And he's also relying on a claim of inherent constitution.

I'm sorry, a claim of inherent constitutional authority to deploy troops to protect federal property and function. That's an executive branch theory. It goes back a very long time, but it hasn't really been tested in the courts and especially this question of what the military is allowed to do when they're performing this function. So this is going to be a very interesting case to watch in terms of what limits the courts might put on this activity.

And this is all this is striking because we have not seen a president call into federal service the National Guard without a governor's consent. It's rare, even when a governor does consent, things like the Katrina situation or the 92 riots in Los Angeles, really rare occasions, because there is such a divide between federal authority and state. Do you think that this is a new moment of precedent, depending on how the courts view the Trump administration's use of what you described as an obscure law? Could this change how this can happen going forward?

Well, the National Guard has been federalized over the objections of a governor to cross the long grass to enforce the law. But not since the civil rights era. And during the civil rights era, state and local authorities were not intervening to prevent violence. That was being directed at civil rights marchers or African Americans who were trying to attend school, and they were obstructing federal court orders.

But that hasn't happened in 60 years. When state and local law enforcement are working to quell the civil unrest. That's a responsibility that's committed to state and local authorities under the Constitution. In all the most extreme cases, then they can ask for help if and when they become truly overwhelmed.

But that's not what happened here. The lapd, the LA Sheriff's Department, they had things under control as of Sunday when the National Guard was deployed, and they did not ask for help. So this is really highly unusual, if not unprecedented. And you mentioned earlier the Insurrection act.

And the President has at times used the term insurrectionist, referring to protesters. Not always. But as you noted, the administration did not invoke that. If it were to do so, if things were to get more heated or expand to other places, how would that look different than what we're seeing right now?

So, under the authorities that the President's relying on right now, it's very unclear whether the Guard and the active duty officers would be able to engage in core law enforcement duties such as conducting arrests, detentions, searches and seizures. And to date, they have not been doing that. Under the Insurrection act, they would be able to engage in some of these activities. So you could potentially see that kind of change.

One of the things that's most concerning here is that we're not just talking about Los Angeles. The memorandum that the President signed authorizes the deployment of federal troops anywhere in the country where any protest against is activity is occurring or isn't likely to occur. And that's truly unprecedented. Well, I expect to have you back as there are more developments in all of this.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth. We appreciate your time tonight. Thanks for having me. And we'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now.

But the news continues and there's so much of it with Hallie Jackson right now. Hey everyone, I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys. I learned a lot my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have all figured out yet. And I'm not the only one.

This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting. I am over here just like winging it. Hey, I'm trying not to screw my own kid.

I might give you advice on how to screw yourself up. Search parent chat on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.