A day after federal agents forcibly restrained and handcuffed U.S. Sen Alex Padilla at a Los Angeles news conference, leaders of the country’s two political parties responded in what has become a predictable fashion — with diametrically opposed takes on the incident.

Now the senior U.S. senator from California, Alex Padilla’s career in public service started amid intense fervor over immigration in the early 1990s. Now, it comes full circle.

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski spoke out after videos circulated Thursday of Senator Alex Padilla being forcibly removed from a news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.

The senator is known on Capitol Hill for being kind and nerdy. His forcible removal from a news conference resonated as a call to action among Democrats.

Chaotic scenes in which Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was pressed to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents set the political world aflame Thursday. Padilla had come to a news conference being

California Sen. Alex Padilla is getting plenty of mileage out of his scuffle with the Secret Service and federal authorities in Los Angeles Thursday. Padilla’s Senate and campaign X.com

Bay Area Republican strategist Matt Shupe described Padilla’s attempt to abruptly question Noem “pure political theatrics.”