Politics in a Police State

Sen. Rand Paul said his misunderstanding with the TSA Monday morning could have been avoided if he would have simply been able to go through a body scanner in Nashville again.

After missing his original flight because he would not submit to a pat-down, Paul told reporters staked out at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after stepping off a re-booked flight from Nashville that “it would be so simple and people would be less offended by the pat-downs if they were given the chance to go back through the screener.”

The Kentucky Republican went through a body-imaging machine Monday morning and refused to submit to a pat-down after setting the machine off. He said he tried to show TSA officers that there was nothing hidden in his leg that would set off the scanner, “but they didn’t really care about my leg too much.”

Paul then bared his knee for reporters.

“It may not be pretty, but there’s nothing there,” he said, rolling up his dress pants.

Both Paul’s spokeswoman and his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), had tweeted that the senator had been detained by TSA officers in Nashville, a characterization the TSA disputed.

“Probably a matter of semantics,” Paul said. “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,” Paul said.

In missing his morning flight, Paul said he missed what was “probably the biggest speech of my career” at the March for Life rally in Washington.

Paul also said he didn’t understand why he went through a scanner once and set it off, then after his flight was rebooked, went through the same scanner, which did not go off.

“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,” Paul said, adding that sometimes he is allowed to go through scanners again without being asked to submit to a pat-down. “Does the screener have the ability to push a button and randomly get someone to set off the screener?”

A TSA rep was not immediately available to comment on Paul’s question.

Asked if the high-profile TSA incident will come up in tonight’s presidential debate which his father is participating in, Rand Paul demurred.

“I don’t know, but he hasn’t been real happy with the TSA either,” he said.

Ron Paul’s campaign released a statement Monday noting he would eliminate the TSA if elected.

“The police state in this country is growing out of control,” Ron Paul said. “One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe.”

- Politico 1/23/12