(No caption)

Despite having TSA Precheck and Clear traveler status, which lets you pass through security with minimal hassles, attorney Angela Rye says she was subjected to an invasive crotch pat-down at Detroit Metro Airport last Thursday en route to New York.


Angela Rye: "I cried out of humiliation."

Rye, 37, is chief executive of a political advocacy firm in Washington, D.C., and appears as a political commentator on CNN and as an NPR political analyst.

She writes about her experience on CNN's site in a piece titled: "Dear TSA: The country is not safer because you grab vaginas."

Rye says she was diverted for a randomly selected additional screening by a female agent. 

She expected a routine back-handed pat-down, but says it felt far more intrusive and appears tearful in a one-minute phone video (below) recorded at her request by another officer. It has been retweeted over 11,000 times, has more than 12,000 "likes" and attracted 2,800 comments.

"I cried out of humiliation," she says in one of many follow-up tweets. In another, she says the agent's crotch check felt like "a vaginal chop." 

The attorney and broadcast personality later filed a TSA complaint and describes the experience in her post:

The pat-down began and was uneventful until she went down my leg, up my dress, and her hand sideways hits me right in the crack of my labia. Startled, I jump and feel a lump in my throat trying to hold back tears. What happened to the back-handed pat-down?

She comes around to the front; I grow nervous and pull back a bit, afraid of the same thing happening ― and her sideways hand hits in the middle of my genitals again. I can no longer hold back the tears. . . .

I initially recorded the video so I could send it to TSA to raise questions about the process and challenge the agency on whether these incidents of violation truly prevent terrorist attacks. I began to think about friends of mine who are victims of sexual assault. I worried that if they were subjected to the same kind of search it could have disastrous emotional impact.

I shared the video on social media. I shared my humiliation. I shared my feelings on Periscope after the incident, so we could have a constructive conversation about altering practices. Of course, we want America to be safe and protected but we should not violate the emotional and physical safety of our nation's citizens at the same time.

Read more: CNN