OF COURSE: ABC Links Lander’s Performative Arrest to Padilla’s Stunt
18th June 2025
Covering politicians getting themselves performatively arrested these days is not unlike watching an outbreak: first one patient, then another, until the whole town is infected. And as is the case with their outbreak coverage, the media are excessively hyping these performative arrests.
Case in point: ABC World News Tonight as they covered the stunt arrest of New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, who attempted to obstruct ICE from arresting an illegal alien that he was escorting to and from immigration court. Here is that report in its entirety:
First off, you’ll note that although Katresky begins his narration of Landers’ arrest with the arm linking, the video shown by ABC omits that. Unless viewers also saw the original video of the arrest, there is the potential for confusion.This is by design. Compare this video featuring the full arrest in its context with what you saw on ABC.
This sleight of hand allows for an easier establishment of a persecution narrative, particularly as ICE prepares to conduct more raids in cities like New York.
Then there is the matter of Padilla. Katersky runs the comparison to Padilla’s Los Angeles crashout, attempting to establish parallels between the two. Padilla showed up to the Senate floor and delivered his emotional remarks. Katersky closes out the report by linking the arrests to an “uptick in ICE arrests in immigration courts.”
It sounds nice, but that’s not what happened. Lander got arrested for obstructing an arrest, and Padilla got busted for trying to crash a press conference in order to ask questions without first identifying himself. Once again, ABC gaslights its public: this time, in order to further fuel anti-ICE sentiment by casting these arrested politicians as Resistance martyrs. Buyer beware.