The incident occurred amid heightened political tensions nationwide, including protests against federal immigration authorities over aggressive sweeps of migrants and immigrants, and deportations.

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.

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.