During his Friday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy warned that America has reached “a point of no return,” following California Senator Alex Padilla‘s forceful removal from a Thursday press conference with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Padilla’s brutal treatment made waves the moment footage of the incident began circulating online Thursday afternoon, prompting incredulous, incendiary responses from other Democratic politicians. Murphy, for his part, echoed the sentiment of his fellow public officials. “What a world we live in today, if simply because you raise a voice in service of your constituents, you are going to be met with violence,” Murphy lamented.
“That’s what happens in dictatorships, in authoritarian regimes,” the Democratic senator noted. “We are in a really perilous moment in this country. We’re at a point of no return.” You can watch Murphy’s full “Morning Joe” interview yourself in the video below.
Murphy also refuted the Trump administration’s claims that Padilla was detained because he did not identify himself. “Senator Padilla identified himself. You can hear it clearly on that video. He apparently was wearing a pullover that said United States Senate on it. And, maybe most importantly, he didn’t burst into that room,” Murphy observed. “He was there with an FBI agent and a member of the National Guard, so members of the administration brought him into that room.”
The Connecticut senator conceded that Padilla may have spoken at the press conference without being called upon by Noem, but quickly explained, “That’s not illegal. That is not an excuse for that kind of brutal treatment.” Murphy then took a moment to slam Trump and his administration for their treatment of Padilla. “What the president is trying to do is to intimidate this country, to try to intimidate members of Congress,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to work.”
The Connecticut official concluded his statement moments later by calling out his Republican counterparts who have defended the Trump administration’s treatment of Padilla, warning, “Republicans shouldn’t think that they will be protected from violence in the future if they excuse it when Donald Trump uses it on his behalf.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” clip in the video above.
