Vice President JD Vance dismissed the “political theater” of Sen. Alex Padilla in Los Angeles earlier this month, as well as that of his fellow Democrats. During the process, however, he got the name of his former Senate colleague wrong, referring to him as “Jose Padilla.”
Vance visited Los Angeles for the first time since anti-ICE protests broke out in the city earlier this month, speaking with law enforcement officers and Marines sent to the state. After a brief address, Vance was asked about several Democratic lawmakers being detained after confronting federal officials, specifically Padilla, who was ejected from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference after interrupting it.
“Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t the theater, and that’s all it is, you know, I think everybody realizes that’s what this is. It’s pure political theater,” Vance answered.
He went on to allege that Democrats “want to be captured on camera doing something” in order to tell left-wing groups they stood up to Trump or border enforcement. In reality, they’re only standing up for drug and sex traffickers, he argued.
“So I think these guys, we ought to laugh them out of the building. We ought to call them out for doing what they’re doing, which is grandstanding,” Vance continued.
It was the first part of his answer that caught people’s attention when he misidentified Padilla. Jose Padilla is a famous terrorist who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 for allegedly plotting a dirty bomb attack. He’s currently held at ADX Florence in Colorado, the U.S.’s most high-security prison.
Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk told NBC News that “he must have mixed up two people who have broken the law” when asked about why he called Sen. Padilla “Jose.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was quick to imply that the mixup was racially motivated.
“JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate. Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” he said in a post on X. Vance and Padilla overlapped in the Senate for two years.
At her own press conference later that evening, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fumed over the mixup.
“You don’t know his name, but yet you served with him before you were vice president, and you continue to serve with him today. Because the last time I checked, the vice president of the United States is the president of the U.S. Senate,” she said. “How dare you disrespect him and call him José, but I guess he just looked like anybody to you.”
VANCE TO SPEAK WITH FEDERAL OFFICERS, MARINES IN LA AFTER ANTI-ICE RIOTS
Vance has been critical of Bass and Newsom, arguing that the deployment of about 6,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines was needed due to state and local officials’ inaction.
“What happened here was a tragedy. You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters — egged on by the governor and the mayor — making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful and it is why the President has responded so forcefully,” he said, condemning “violent agitators.”
