But from fox news twitter: “My colleague Mike Levine reports that a law enforcement official says that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was not detained, despite contrary claims.”
That's probably playing with the exact definition of "detained". Rand Paul might be legally allowed to leave the airport and abandon hopes of ever flying commercial flights again so he isn't officially "detained".
I wonder if Rand tried to pull "I'm a Senator", or if he didn't mention that ahead of time and then let the TSA twist itself into a knot over how can they let him fly without appearing to give him any favoritism. I think the supervisor would love to give him one pat, let him go and hope the whole thing disappears. I believe the Paul family doesn't let go of things like that so easily, especially now that this has hit the public.