OPINION
Premium

A Rampaging Senator Gets a Theatrical Review, and Democrats Have Rediscovered the American Flag

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jun 13, 2025
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Editor’s Note: Don't miss our massive Patriot Sale as we celebrate Flag Day and our great U.S. Army’s 250th and President Trump's birthdays! Get 74% off a VIP membership with promo code POTUS47.

Democratic Custodial Services – LOS ANGELES TIMES

  • Kicked out of a press conference equals “deportation”?!

The amusingly pathetic stunt of California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla crashing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s presser in order to fabricate a viral moment led to all manner of unhinged and frankly fever-dream levels of outrage by Democrats. But the press needed to join in.

The Los Angeles Times looked at the sane and sober reaction to Padilla by the security staff and came to a rather illogical and deeply emotion-based conclusion.

Prose & Contradiction – CNN

Recommended

Guess Which Network Became Totally Unglued Yesterday Matt Vespa
MN Dem Shooting Suspect's Wife Has Been Detained. The Contents of Her Car Were Peculiar. Matt Vespa

  • When Jake undercuts his colleague for the Democrat spin.

After the Padilla stunt, Jake Tapper was covering the aftermath and was interviewing Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who was on-brand with her instant accusations of outrage over the staged fracas. Notable was the way Tapper let her interpretation stand unchallenged, especially after he spoke with CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam.

She detailed things more accurately — as reflected in the video shot of Padilla’s enragement — and was a better voice on the matter, considering she was actually in attendance of that press conference and witnessed it live.

Tapper could not bring himself to challenge the senator, however.

Legalized Press-titution – THE NEW YORK TIMES

  • This reads like a Broadway review, which is fitting for the theatrics involved.

After his melodramatic appearance at the Kristi Noem presser, Annie Karni arrives to deliver a gushing four-star review of Padilla’s performance. She shamelessly delves into the senator’s past and talks of all of the emotions that were stirred up in him after the confrontation he endured. That is, the confrontation he manufactured in this completely staged stunt performance.

Interesting how quickly Karni was able to find affiliates of Padilla to interview about his childhood on the very same day of this “completely spontaneous and not at all prestaged” event that took place.

DNC PR Firm – POLITICO

  • The headline raises questions they never thought to ask.

“Why is the GOP always affiliated with the flag?”

“Did you forget how enthusiastic they have been about the Ukraine flag?”

“Doesn’t this mean they had NOT been claiming it?”

These and others went unasked as Politico declares Democrats are embracing the flag for Flag Day. You know, after a week of them defending protesters who have been burning that same flag.

And let’s not forget how frequently we have been told just how problematic our national banner can be.

Gilded Reframe – KTLA CHANNEL 5, LOS ANGELES

  • We have to guess that cops using Nerf guns is the next solution.

Some time ago there was a big activist push to have the police opting to use rubber bullets, bean-bag ordinance, and other types of non-lethal ammunition in crowd control and other similar scenarios.

Now, with the past week of “mostly peaceful protests” involving non-peaceful interaction with police and a number of journalists hit with these rounds, the local station is calling for an end to the use of these options.

So…reverting back to live ammo is the solution?