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Alec Baldwin wrongly blames TSA for his 5-month-old daughter's airport pat-down

Carmen and Alec Baldwin
Instagram/Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin often makes headlines for going after persistent paparazzi. But his latest target is the TSA, after Baldwin claimed the agency gave his baby daughter a pat-down when he and wife Hilaria returned to New York from the Bahamas.

Baldwin tweeted about the incident:

But in his anger, Baldwin fumbled some facts.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News that the TSA does not conduct screening operations in the Bahamas, only in the U.S. Passenger screening is overseen there by the Nassau Airport Authority, who has not yet responded to a request for comment. 

Also, the TSA does not pat down children under 12, the DHS official said.

Furthermore, Baldwin was not travelling in the United States as Baldwin's hashtag would indicate; the Bahamas are an independent nation.

Baldwin, his wife Hilaria and their daughter had been vacationing on Paradise Island for several days, and Baldwin had been sending out the occasional picture, including this one:

There have been child pat-down incidents at US airport security checkpoints in the past. Alterations to the TSA pat-down procedure were announced in 2011 after a 6-year-old girl was filmed getting a pat-down at New Orleans' airport; a photo of a baby being patted down at Kansas City's International Airport also came to the public attention, after the baby's stroller set of an alert for possible traces of explosives.

Reps for Baldwin have not responded to requests for comment. 

Ben Popken and Jay Blackman contributed to this report.