Brenda Lee, Reporter, Dragged Kicking And Screaming From Near Air Force One

Secret Service personnel remove Brenda Lee from near Air Force One

Brenda Lee, a reporter for a small newspaper in Georgia, was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One earlier today, shortly before President Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

Airport security physically carried the woman away by her feet and arms as she protested her removal.

The woman, who writes for the Georgia Informer in Macon, had White House press credential and told the Associated Press during a telephone interview that all she wanted to do was to hand the president a letter urging him “to take a stand for traditional marriage.”

Lee told the AP reporter that she asked a Secret Service agent to give the president the letter, but he refused and referred her to a White House staffer, but she refused to give it to the staffer.

“I said, I’ll take my chances if the president comes by here,” Lee said.

Lee, who says she is a Roman Catholic priestess who lives in Anaheim, California, said when they were taking her away she asked, “Why are you bothering me?”

After she was escorted out the gates, she said security allowed her to return after she promised she would not yell or wave, but then other security staff arrived and told her she had to go.

“I said, ‘I am not leaving,’ they tried to drag me out,” she told the reporter.

The AP reporter said at one point Lee choked up and said, “I was afraid you could see under my clothes.”

President Obama was in Los Angeles for the Democratic National Committee fundraiser, which was held in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

The newspaper’s website that Lee works for says it is a monthly publication.