During remarks in Los Angeles on Friday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance called California Sen. Alex Padilla “José,” and now the senator is responding by calling the incident “a petty slight.”
The vice president had been responding to a question from a member of the media requesting a comment on Trump’s immigration crackdown when he referred to Sen. Alex Padilla by the wrong name.
“Well, I was hoping José 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,” Vance said.
Vance was alluding to Sen. Padilla being handcuffed and forcibly removed from a June 12 press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; the Democrat was dragged out of the room after he tried to question the DHS secretary.
Sen. Padilla posted a short message on X saying that “the Vice President knows [his] name. But that’s not the point.”
“[Vice President Vance] should be focused on removing the thousands of unnecessary troops from the streets of Los Angeles,” the post reads. “Not petty slights.”
Padilla’s post, which includes a clip from a recent MSNBC interview, doubles down on what he referred to as pettiness being shown by the Trump administration.
“Sadly, it’s just an indicator of how petty and unserious this administration is,” Sen. Padilla said in the MSNBC interview. “He’s the Vice President of the United States…you’d think he’d take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously.”
