Welcome to Washington: Fear and Outrage Strike at the Heart of Congress

Something changed this past week in Congress. For months, Republicans had been joyfully gloating and Democrats railing against the president’s legislative agenda, though there was comity in the air through all of it. Democrats and Republicans would laugh and have cordial conversations when the cameras were off. But that all changed this week. Welcome to Washington, where the House of Representatives, thankfully, will be out of session this week. Tempers had been flaring in recent days, and that was before a Minnesota politician, who had many friends in Congress, and her husband were killed in their home. The Senate, meanwhile, is working its way through the slog of passing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This past week, the House and Senate were going about their usual business. House members were voting to codify DOGE cuts and having their regular dramatic committee hearings. Senators were confirming members of the president’s Cabinet while negotiating over the tax and spending bill behind closed doors. Senator Padilla is pushed out of the room as the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, holds a news conference regarding the recent protests at Los Angeles, on June 12, 2025. AP/Etienne LaurentShortly before both chambers left town on Thursday, a video of Senator Padilla shot around the Capitol at lightning speed. He had interrupted the homeland security secretary while she was briefing the press, identifying himself and demanding that he be able to ask a question. He was quickly, and aggressively, removed from the room before being told to lay face-down on the ground, where he was then handcuffed.Minutes later the clip began going around social media. Democrats in the House and Senate flew into fits of rage. Senator Schumer said it made him feel “sick.” Some of Mr. Padilla’s friends in the chamber — including Senators Schiff, Lujan, Booker, and Schatz — took to the Senate floor to demand accountability. One Republican, Senator Murkowski, only moments after seeing the video for herself told reporters just off the Senate floor that it was “horrible” and “shocking.”Senator Padilla speaks during a confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, March 21, 2022. AP/J. Scott Applewhite, poolHouse Democrats were incensed. They marched from their side of the building to Senator Thune’s office, demanding a meeting with the majority leader. They were told by staff that he was not on Capitol Hill at that time. Democrats then tried to confront Speaker Johnson in his office suite. Again, the lawmakers were turned away by staff members. “This is what dictatorship looks like. This is not the United States of America,” a typically jovial lawmaker, Congressman Jim McGovern, told the Sun sternly on Thursday.The chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, begged members of the press corps to take the handcuffing of Mr. Padilla seriously, and not to treat it as part of a regular news cycle. “Let me warn you, the press: You won’t be spared,” Mr. Espaillat declared in the hallway just outside of the speaker’s office. More than a dozen other lawmakers, standing behind him, shook their heads in agreement, clearly angry about what had taken place. Mr. Thune seemed uncomfortable discussing the matter when reporters caught him outside of his office Thursday afternoon. He said that he had spoken to Mr. Padilla and that he was waiting for more information. When asked by the Sun if he believed the agents acted appropriately just based on what he saw on the video, Mr. Thune said he had nothing else to add before walking briskly onto the chamber floor. It was clear on Thursday that Democrats’ rage at the event would not abate — until Governor Walz announced on Saturday that a former speaker of the Minnesota house of representatives, Melissa Hortman, had been murdered in her home early Saturday morning along with her husband. The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, Vance Luther Boelter, as he was arrested late on June 15, 2025. Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office via APCondemnations poured in from across the political spectrum. The top Republican from Minnesota, the House majority whip, Congressman Tom Emmer, authored a statement with all of his congressional colleagues from Minnesota — Republicans and Democrats — to decry the assassination of Hortman and her husband. Another Democratic lawmaker, a state senator, as well as his wife were also shot but are expected to survive. “Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief, and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants. There is no place in our democracy for politically-motivated violence,” the Minnesota lawmakers said in their statement. The suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, was apprehended late Sunday. As members of Congress return to try to go about the normal course of business, the Hortman assassination is likely to weigh heavily on them. Lawmakers will receive a security briefing from the Capitol Police this week.

Welcome to Washington: Fear and Outrage Strike at the Heart of Congress

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