CBS’s Stephen Colbert showed a lack of historical awareness on Monday as he welcomed Sen. Tammy Duckworth to The Late Show to lament all things related to President Trump. Colbert wondered what happens when the military is deployed to the streets, while the duo later claimed that Sen. Alex Padilla being removed from a recent press conference with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is about “fear” because what happened to him could happen to anyone.
National Guard troops and even Marines have been deployed in law enforcement capacities in the past, but that didn’t stop Colbert from asking, “Well, let's talk about some of the other things the president’s done recently with service members. So, last week he deployed Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles. What happens when a commander-in-chief orders troops to do something that isn't necessarily about national defense? When our own troops are sent into our own streets against our own citizens?”
Duckworth replied that, “It is perversion of the law. He basically broke posse comitatus rules, and frankly, those troops, I asked the Marine Corps commandant—was asked in committee last week, how many hours of civil disturbance training do the Marines get a year? He said two hours. And yet there are hundreds and hundreds of LAPD officers who could provide that support and, in fact, said they don’t need the Marines to come. We’re okay.”
The late night comedy shows can’t decide whether Trump is some grave threat to norms as he sends the military to crack down on our fellow citizens or whether the military is just sitting in LA, twiddling its thumbs with nothing to do.
However, Colbert’s exaggerations were just getting started. In a second segment with Duckworth, he wondered, “On Thursday, your fellow senator, a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was handcuffed at a Homeland Security press conference after he tried to ask Kristi Noem a question. What is it like—I don't mean for Democratic senators, any senator, to see one of their fellow senators in what's often called the most collegial institution in the United States that he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed after having identified himself even though he’s a U.S. Senator.”
Duckworth warned that what happened to Padilla could happen to anyone, “He was in a federal building in California in his jurisdiction, and he stood up, identified himself and said, 'I have a question,' and he was immediately wrestled out of the room, thrown on the ground, and handcuffed. What I am most worried about -- Alex Padilla is a tough guy. I am less worried about Alex Padilla than I am about the American people. If they can do that to a U.S. Senator, what are they going to do to me when I speak up?”
She continued, “What are they going to do to me, the average American, when I say, 'Hey, I don't like what you're doing, banning books in my schools. Hey, I don't like what you're doing to food stamps and taking food out of children's mouths. Hey, I don't like that you are sending ICE agents without proper identification into our schools and approaching young kids and ripping them out of schools.'"
Colbert quipped, “Fear is the point of a lot of this,” to which Duckworth elaborated, “Fear is a tool of dictators and wannabe autocrats.”
Padilla is not one of the more well-known senators, and he was not wearing his Senate pin, so how was security supposed to know whether he was an actual senator or just some lunatic claiming to be one? And, despite Padilla’s theatrics, he and Noem had a 15-minute private meeting afterwards, which is what he should have done in the first place. It is clear that Padilla wanted a viral video so he could beat his chest about how great of a “fighter” he is and fundraise off of it.
Here is a transcript for the June 16-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
6/17/2025
12:21 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Well, let's talk about some of the other things the president’s done recently with service members. So, last week he deployed Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles. What happens when a commander-in-chief orders troops to do something that isn't necessarily about national defense? When our own troops are sent into our own streets against our own citizens?
TAMMY DUCKWORTH: It is perversion of the law. He basically broke posse comitatus rules, and frankly, those troops, I asked the Marine Corps commandant—was asked in committee last week, how many hours of civil disturbance training do the Marines get a year? He said two hours. And yet there are hundreds and hundreds of LAPD officers who could provide that support and, in fact, said they don’t need the Marines to come. We’re okay.
…
COLBERT: On Thursday, your fellow senator, a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was handcuffed at a Homeland Security press conference after he tried to ask Kristi Noem a question. What is it like — I don't mean for Democratic senators, any senator, to see one of their fellow senators in what's often called the most collegial institution in the United States that he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed after having identified himself—
DUCKWORTH: Right.
COLBERT: — even though he’s a U.S. senator.
DUCKWORTH: He was in a federal building in California in his jurisdiction, and he stood up, identified himself and said, “I have a question,” and he was immediately wrestled out of the room, thrown on the ground, and handcuffed. What I am most worried about — Alex Padilla is a tough guy. I am less worried about Alex Padilla than I am about the American people. If they can do that to a U.S. Senator, what are they going to do to me when I speak up?
What are they going to do to me, the average American, when I say, "Hey, I don't like what you're doing, banning books in my schools. Hey, I don't like what you're doing to food stamps and taking food out of children's mouths. Hey, I don't like that you are sending ICE agents without proper identification into our schools and approaching young kids and ripping them out of schools."
COLBERT: Well.
DUCKWORTH: That's what I'm most worried about.
COLBERT: Fear is the point of a lot of this.
DUCKWORTH: Fear is a tool of dictators and wannabe autocrats.
