JD Vance refers to Sen. Alex Padilla as ‘José Padilla’ in remarks blasting Democrats during L.A. visit

Vice President JD Vance bashed Democrats at the state, local and national levels Friday during his visit to Los Angeles, accusing top California officials of encouraging violent protesters and Sen. Alex Padilla, whom he referred to as “José Padilla,” of engaging in “political theater.”

“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. “It’s pure political theater. These guys show up. They want to be captured on camera doing something.”

Vance’s comments referred to an incident last week in which federal law enforcement agents handcuffed Padilla after he interrupted a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla was forcibly removed from the event but not arrested.

When asked why he referred to the senator as “José Padilla,” despite his first name being Alejandro, Taylor Van Kirk — a spokesperson for Vance — said “he must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.” Van Kirk did not elaborate.

In 2007, a jury convicted U.S. citizen José Padilla on charges of supporting al Qaeda after he was initially accused of planning to carry out a “dirty bomb” attack in the U.S. He was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison; it was later increased to 21 years.

A spokesperson for Sen. Padilla, Tess Oswald, called Vance’s remark “another unserious comment from an unserious administration.”

“As a former colleague of Senator Padilla, the Vice President knows better. He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,” Oswald said on X.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom asserted that Vance’s comment about Padilla, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was intentional.

“JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate. Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” Newsom wrote on X.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass meanwhile condemned Vance for incorrectly naming the senator, saying he aimed to disrespect Padilla.

“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,” Bass said at a press event Friday evening. “How dare you disrespect him and call him José, but I guess he just looked like anybody to you.”

Vance made the remarks about Padilla and other California Democrats after he toured an FBI mobile command center and met with Marines in Los Angeles, a city where clashes between protesters and law enforcement officials have become a focal point of the opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

During the news conference, Vance accused Newsom and Bass, both Democrats who have heavily criticized Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops, of “encouraging” protests that have occasionally turned violent.

“What I see here today is the great tragedy, when a mayor and a governor encourages their citizens to harass and endanger the lives of our police officers and our law enforcement officers. It’s heartbreaking to see, and thank God we’ve got great people who are willing to persevere despite it,” Vance said.

Bass fiercely pushed back on Vance’s characterization, accusing the vice president of “spewing lies and utter nonsense in an attempt to provoke division and conflict in our city.”

“How dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace. You know that the federal officials that were here protected a federal building, they were not involved in crowd control. Crowd control was handled most aptly by the Los Angeles Police Department, the sheriff’s department and local law enforcement,” she said.

Newsom and Bass have maintained that violent protests in the city have been confined to a small area, and on Monday Bass lifted a curfew in downtown Los Angeles after a drop in arrests.

Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said earlier Friday that Vance should spend “quality time” with victims of the wildfires that devastated large parts of Los Angeles this year, pointedly referring to a threat by President Donald Trump to withhold additional wildfire relief because of his “dust-ups” with Newsom.

“I hope you have an opportunity to spend some quality time with some of the victims of the families in the Palisades, and also spend some time in Altadena, which is incredibly important,” Newsom said in a video on X. “It’s also important, as well, and I honestly mean this, that you sit down with the president of the United States, who just a couple days ago suggested that these American citizens may not get the support that other citizens get all across this country in terms of disaster relief.”

Newsom did not receive formal notice about Vance’s trip, his deputy director of communications, Brandon Richards, said in a statement.

“The Governor would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Vice President in service to Californians,” Richards said. “We’re always open to working together — which makes it all the more disappointing that the White House chose not to engage with us directly ahead of the visit.”

Vance’s visit is the latest in the battle between Democrats and the Trump administration over its hard-line deportation policies after an appeals court ruled in the administration’s favor Thursday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it’s “likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority” in deploying California National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles. The decision stemmed California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit against the Trump administration after Trump sent the troops to the city without Newsom’s approval.

On Tuesday, U.S. Northern Command said it was activating 2,000 additional National Guard troops in Los Angeles to “support the protection of federal functions, personnel, and property in the greater Los Angeles area.” That brings the number of National Guard troops deployed to the city to more than 4,000 since the protests erupted this month. Trump also deployed Marines to assist law enforcement in the response to demonstrations.

Trump and his administration’s immigration actions have sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, including Padilla, who was forcibly removed and handcuffed after he tried to question Noem at her news conference last week.

The protests formed after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided three places in central Los Angeles in early June, triggering a domino effect of similar demonstrations nationwide. While the protests have largely dissipated in recent days, the Los Angeles Dodgers said Thursday that they blocked federal immigration agents from entering their stadium after they “requested permission to access the parking lots.”