With the government shutdown likely to enter a third week and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refusing to call legislators back to Washington to sort it out, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) is bravely taking a stand against… airports.
Specifically, Denver International Airport, which, along with 20 or so of the nation’s largest airports, is refusing to play a propaganda video at security checkpoints featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The video in question features Noem blaming Democrats for the shutdown and, by extension, for whatever travel hiccups may follow. (As a result of the shutdown, air-traffic controllers and TSA agents are being asked to work without pay.)
“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. “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.”
Boebert called DIA’s refusal “completely unacceptable” in a social media statement on Wednesday.
“This is completely unacceptable. I will be contacting the Department of Transportation to demand action on airports refusing to show Secretary Noem’s video at TSA checkpoints,” she wrote.
“It is a fact that the Democrat shutdown is causing travel chaos,” she continued, badly misconstruing what a “fact” is. “The American people deserve transparency, efficiency, and an end to this shutdown—now.”
Boebert’s wrath might be a little misplaced, even by her standards. A spokesperson for Denver International Airport told HuffPost that TSA never even asked to play the video “as we do not have monitors capable of playing video at our checkpoints.”
The nearby Colorado Springs Airport, meanwhile, told Denver’s 9News that Noem’s video was simply too partisan to air.
“As a publicly operated facility, the Airport adheres to policies that prohibit the display of materials that could be interpreted as political or partisan in nature,” the airport said in a statement. “In accordance with our Advertising Policy, content of this nature is not eligible for display within airport facilities.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) talks with reporters outside the Capitol Hill Club after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Tom Williams via Getty Images
Noem’s video violates the Hatch Act, experts say. The 1939 law bars executive branch employees, including cabinet secretaries, from using government resources for partisan political activities.
The video “completely runs afoul of the Hatch Act,” John Berry, a lawyer with 26 years of experience in Hatch Act cases, told CNN.
“[Noem] filmed it, most likely, using government resources,” Berry explained. “Even though it’s being played at the airport, which is like a separate entity, it’s definitely a political activity.”
Spokespeople at other airports that have refused to play the video referenced its political nature in explaining their decision.
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport told KIRO it won’t air the video “due to the political nature of the content.”
Ditto for Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Airport, where a spokesperson told 8NewsNow the video “did not align with the neutral, informational nature of the public service announcements typically shown at the security checkpoints.”
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According to a tally by Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, all but three of the nation’s 25 busiest airports have similarly refused to play the video.
“The overwhelming refusal by the nation’s airports to air this partisan and illegal video is a welcome sign of civil servants performing their jobs with honor and defending basic democratic norms,” the group’s co-president Robert Weissman said in an emailed statement.
“The Trump administration is trying to cram its authoritarian agenda down the throats of the American people. Each action refusing its unlawful demands, each insistence on upholding the rule of law, each affirmation of common sense, decency and fairness builds the next one and works to protect and strengthen our democracy in this.”