There was once a time when getting arrested on camera would be the beginning of the end of any public figure’s career. But now, the opposite is happening.
Exhibits A and B are Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and New York City mayoral candidate and City Comptroller Brad Lander.
In Padilla’s case, he thought it would be a great idea to storm into a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unannounced and without initially identifying himself. Secret Service officers rightly arrested him, because what else are they supposed to do when someone acts and sounds like a maniac with a Cabinet member just feet away?
Padilla was released quickly and was promptly rewarded by our predictable media, which portrayed him as a victim of President Donald Trump’s tyrannical federal officers.
New York Times headline: Alex Padilla’s Unlikely Moment in the Spotlight.
Subheadline: The senator is known on Capitol Hill for being kind and nerdy. His forcible removal from a news conference resonated as a call to action among Democrats.
Yes … because nothing says kind and nerdy like storming into a press conference in unhinged fashion instead of simply speaking to Noem privately like a grown adult. But Padilla wanted the attention and all the perks that come with it.
Washington Post headline: Sen. Padilla is forcefully removed from Noem’s news conference on immigration raids and handcuffed.
Subheadline: Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California has been forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up about immigration raids that have led to protests in California and elsewhere.
Uh-huh. He was just “trying to speak up” by screaming at a Cabinet secretary, knowing the moment would go viral. And by the way, the Washington Post once again omitted a key word before “immigration.”
So, if you’re playing along at home, Democrats and the media, who kept insisting “no one is above the law” as they attempted to jail Trump ahead of the 2024 election, are openly advocating that violent criminals here illegally be protected from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And lawmakers hope they’ll get arrested to bask later in the rhetorical version of a hot stone massage that are “interviews” on CNN and MSNBC, while columns in the Washington Post and New York Times scream about fascism.
Added bonus: Fundraising, which is exactly what Padilla did less than 24 hours after the incident happened.
A few days later, a mostly unknown New York mayoral candidate named Brad Lander, who is trailing badly in the polls with the primary being held next week, decided to obstruct the arrest of an illegal migrant at an immigrant facility in Manhattan. The full video shows exactly what happened: Lander locked arms with an illegal immigrant in the facility to ensure it was a package deal to the courtroom. Agents were forced to separate the two before an arrest was made. This was an obvious obstruction, and Lander had to be arrested.
Not unlike Padilla, Lander was everywhere in the media after he was released. Anchors and hosts made absolutely certain he was also a victim.
New York Times headline: After His ICE Arrest, Brad Lander Has the Spotlight. Is It Too Late?
Subheadline: Brad Lander received widespread support after his arrest on Tuesday, but it’s unclear how it will affect his third-place campaign for mayor of New York City.
Widespread support? On what planet did this occur? The support came from the extreme Left and legacy media, but it wasn’t as if independents and Republicans were also running to his corner. It was quite the opposite, because the video clearly showed Lander obstructing federal agents in the hopes of being handcuffed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), instead of condemning Lander’s actions, did the opposite by pledging $50 million from the state for legal services for illegal immigrants.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Moving forward, as these raids continue, the over/under on the number of Democrats who get arrested between now and Labor Day is (in my sportsbook that doesn’t exist) 10.5. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is practically begging for it to happen, as is Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL).
“[Border czar Tom Homan] is a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom said. “That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
Pritzker said, “I would rather that he came and arrested me than do that to the people of my state.”
We might as well call it for what it is: Arrest porn. It’s cheesy performance art with acting worse than anything you’ll see on Cinemax at 3:00 a.m. And how is this playing with the public? Glad you asked.
A recent Harvard-Harris poll shows that 80% of voters support deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes, yet Democrats are bending over backward to appeal to the 20% on this issue.
Another question in the poll: “Should sanctuary cities and states which oppose the administration’s immigration policies deploy their police force to stop violence towards federal agents or should they not involve themselves?” On that front, 71% of voters say yes.
It truly is the theater of the absurd. And it’s not just the arrest porn we’re seeing play out on our screens. It’s in places like the Senate chamber. Remember Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and his 25-hour stunt under the guise of a filibuster not too long ago? It was slobbered over by the press, but ask yourself: Can anyone identify exactly what Spartacus was filibustering? Can anyone quote even one line from those 25 hours? “I want to emphasize what Cory Booker did over the last 24 hours may have changed the course of political history,” pollster Frank Luntz insisted.
Uh-huh. How’s that looking now, Frank?
We’ve also seen it with last weekend’s “No Kings” protests across the country. MSNBC headline: ‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump.
The backlash is real, but it comes from a relatively small minority of the far Left. Democrats are currently polling at 21% approval overall (Quinnipiac), with even a majority of Democratic voters disapproving of their performance. Meanwhile, Trump is polling higher than he ever has, and he has a higher approval rating at this stage of his second term than former Presidents Barack Obama or George W. Bush did in theirs.
So, until Democrats offer up viable proposals on what they would do on the economy, on immigration, on foreign policy, especially as it pertains to Iran, their goose is cooked.
Resistance and noise are not enough. It may win a news cycle for a day, but in the case of the No Kings protests, they’re forgotten quickly.
DEMOCRATS’ CONFRONTATIONAL TACTICS DRAW ATTENTION AND RAISE POLITICAL STAKES
In the near future and beyond, expect to see more lawmakers on the Left succeed in their wishes to get arrested.
Some men run toward danger. Democrats run to the cameras. Getting arrested was once considered political suicide. Now, it’s a major party platform.