Kristi Noem Declares, ‘We Are Here To Liberate’ Los Angeles From ‘Burdensome Leadership’

Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration will “liberate this city” from its democratically elected leaders.

Noem’s remarks come as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue to carry out raids in Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump has deployed 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom and other state and city leaders.

During the presser, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) interjected and said, “I’m Senator Alex Padilla, I have questions for the secretary.” He was subsequently manhandled by federal agents and cuffed before being released without arrest. The wild scene sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who said it “sickened my stomach.”

While Padilla’s treatment understandably received all the attention, lost in the incident was a pledge from Noem that the federal government will “liberate” Los Angeles from the leaders the city’s voters elected to represent them:

The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor had placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.

It was at that point, Padilla interrupted and was physically pushed out of the room and into a hallway, where he was handcuffed.

Conservatives have seized on anti-ICE protests and scattered incidents of vandalism in Los Angeles to justify Trump’s deployment of the U.S. military for use against U.S. citizens. It is the first time a president has used the military in a state over the objections of its governor since 1965, when Lyndon Johnson federalized the National Guard in Alabama to protect Civil Rights marchers.

Watch above via Fox News.