TSA: Sen. Paul treated like everyone else

{mosads}Ron Paul and Rand Paul’s office contended the lawmaker was detained by TSA employees, but U.S. security officials denied that Rand Paul was held by the agency. Instead, they said the senator was escorted out of the security area after his refusal to accept a pat-down after his trip through one of the agency’s X-ray machines caused issues.

For its part, TSA said “the passenger,” Rand Paul, “has since rebooked on another flight and was rescreened without incident.”

Both Pauls have been vocal critics of the TSA, calling for the controversial agency to be disbanded.

“This kind of gets back to this whole idea of what we are willing to … give up as a country,” the senator said of pat-downs last summer during a hearing in which TSA Administrator John Pistole appeared before lawmakers.

“The press reports are horrifying,” Ron Paul, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said last summer during one of his weekly “Texas Straight Talk” audio addresses.

“Ninety-five-year-old women humiliated, children molested, disabled people abused,” he continued. “Men and women subjected to unwarranted groping and touching of their most private areas, and involuntary radiation exposure.

“If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents,” said Ron Paul.

—This post was updated with new information at 11:55 a.m.