Dem. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse compared Dem. Sen. Alex Padilla to Civil Rights icon John Lewis on Thursday (Getty;AP )
"Talk about a cheap, woke insult," Owens told Fox News Digital. "As someone who grew up under segregation in the Deep South, I can tell you: comparing this political stunt to the courage of the Civil Rights Movement is offensive, wrong, and shameful."
The post was also criticized by conservatives on social media.
"Sit this one out," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields posted on X.
"Are you insane," Fox News host Lawrence Jones posted on X.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"Kristi Noem should never have been appointed to that office," fellow California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said. "She should resign from that office. There ought to be an investigation of the conduct of those officers."
The reaction on the opposite side of the aisle was largely on the same page, with Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., accusing Padilla of making "a spectacle of himself," and questioning why he did not show up for Senate votes.
Others wanted to know if a crime had been committed, like Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who was presiding over the Senate floor when the video began making the rounds.
"In fact, the Democrats are the ones that like to say nobody's above the law," he told Fox News Digital. "Now it's a little ironic, given that they cheered as the FBI raided the house of a former president with almost completely no justification whatsoever."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/social-media-erupts-after-dem-senator-compares-political-stunt-civil-rights-leader-woke-insult