Tony Hopfinger, Journalist Detained by Joe Millers' Security, Speaks Out About Ordeal (VIDEO)

On 'The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell' (weeknights, 10 PM ET on MSNBC) O'Donnell interviewed Tony Hopfinger, the editor of Alaskadispatch.com who was handcuffed and detained by Tea Party Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security force after Hopfinger asked Miller a question he didn't want to answer.

"This was town hall meeting open the public," Hopfinger explained to O'Donnell via telephone. "I and other journalist were there to cover the event."

During the event, Hopfinger saw Miller in the hallway and tried to get him to address charges that he had been illegally engaging in politics while he was employed by the city of Fairbanks, AK.

"As I was asking him, he sort of walked away and I ended up kind of being surrounded by these security guards who were chest bumping me," Hopfinger explained.

"These guys weren't clearly marked as security guards. After the confrontation, which lasted thirty seconds tops, from the time I asked Miller the question to when I basically ended up in handcuffs. At that point I was taken over to a corridor of the school and detained for around twenty to thirty minutes."

Miller is still the favorite to win the election, despite this embarrassing caught-on-tape violation of the First, and possibly Fourth Amendments. If Miller decides to bring his private goon squad with him to Washington D.C., the much-maligned 'beltway media' would be well-advised to keep their heads on a swivel.