Last week, the White House bragged that a video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming the ongoing government shutdown on Democrats is “currently playing at every public airport in America.”
But according to local reports, airports across the country—from Washington state to New York—have announced their refusal to subject travelers to the propaganda.
“It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe,” Noem says in the video, which is intended to be shown to people waiting in Transportation Security Administration lines. “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.
“Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government,” the homeland security secretary continues.
Travelers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington will be spared the message. “The Port of Seattle will not play the video on its screens at SEA Airport, due to the political nature of the content,” a Sea–Tac spokesperson told local outlets.
Also in Washington, Spokane International Airport is refusing to play the video, due to the airport’s “First Amendment Policy,” which prohibits the display of political advertising content on airport-owned monitors in public spaces.
Oregon’s Portland International Airport won’t show it either, on the grounds that the video could violate the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from certain partisan political activities. “We believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits using public assets for political purposes and messaging,” said a PDX spokesperson, who also cited state law prohibiting public employees from promoting or opposing “any political committee, party, or affiliation.”
In New York, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which oversees the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the Niagara Falls International Airport, has declined as well, citing a “long-standing policy” against “partisan messaging.”
Ditto Westchester County Airport in New York. According to the Westchester County executive, the message was determined to be “inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials,” as it “politicizes the impacts of a federal government shutdown on TSA Operations” and has an “unnecessarily alarmist” tone.
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