Rand Paul Speaks After TSA Detention: ‘I Think I Would Have Been Arrested’

As we reported earlier today, Ron Paul spawn Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, was “detained” by TSA agents after refusing a pat-down in Tennessee.

Paul’s dad Ron tweeted that his son had been detained this morning- the younger Paul was on his way to what he says would have been the biggest speech in his career at an anti-abortion rally- when something in the area of his leg triggered a scanner. Rather than allowing Paul to be rescanned, the TSA demanded he submit to the pat-downs, a security measure many feel is both unnecessarily invasive as well as ineffective and upsetting.

Paul refused, and has recounted his version of events at the airport following the incident. He says of what may have provoked the event:

“I suspect that the scanner is randomly setting off an alarm that’s not a real alarm so you’re made to feel like you did something wrong and then you get the pat-down. Does the screener have the ability to push a button and randomly get someone to set off the screener?”

Of headlines that blared “Rand Paul detained,” he says:

“Probably a matter of semantics. I was told not to leave a cubicle and when I did step outside the cubicle I was sort of surrounded and put back in the cubicle. Seems a little bit like I was being detained. But when they got tired of detaining me, they evicted me. And then I was told to leave. I think I would have been arrested had I not done what I was told.”

Following their comments this morning on the incident, the TSA has not confirmed nor have they denied any of Paul’s assertions. Do you think more Americans should refuse pat-downs like Rand Paul?