Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s recorded TSA message, which lays the blame for the ongoing Schumer shutdown squarely on Democrats (which is, in all candor, where it belongs), has been the hot topic de jour among airport management in the last few days. The message itself is pretty simple: There may be delays, we’re doing all we can to keep you moving, and thanks, Democrats.
Plenty of airports are refusing to show the video. Anchorage, Alaska, isn’t one of them, nor is Fairbanks. At Alaska’s two largest airports, the Secretary’s image will appear at the TSA checkpoint, message intact.
Passengers at Alaska’s biggest airports may soon see a political advertisement published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that blames Democrats for the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The video, promoted by the White House, features Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is expected to appear at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
These Alaska airports are owned and operated by the state. In fact, most of Alaska’s 230+ airports are state-operated, with one key exception.
Airport officials in other states — including Noem’s home state of South Dakota — have declined to allow the video, citing longstanding policies against airing political content.
In Alaska, the state department of transportation and public facilities owns and operates more than 230 airports statewide, including Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and Fairbanks International Airport.
That exception? The state capital, Juneau, has the Great Land’s third-largest airport. The management of Juneau International Airport has been, as of this writing, non-committal.
Only a handful of Alaska’s airports aren’t owned and operated by the state. One notable exception is Juneau International Airport, the state’s third-largest.
There, airport manager Andres Delgado said that he had received an email from a TSA official providing advance notice but hadn’t yet received an official request.
He said he wanted to check with the city manager and legal counsel before deciding whether to allow the video.
“We’ve been, understandably, trying to avoid taking a stance on it,” he said.
Someone has decided that Juneau is going to try to finesse this – for now, at least. Maybe they’re hoping the situation will resolve itself before they have to decide what to do.
Alaska’s state department of transportation, which manages the state-run airports, has only been approached by TSA over Anchorage and Juneau, which is to be expected; the majority of Alaska’s airports are in rural areas and are primarily used for civil aviation. The smaller airports don’t even have any means to display this video, although Anchorage and Fairbanks do have screens in the areas leased by TSA.
The Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act states in part that state officials may not use their position to: “…use or authorize the use of state funds, facilities, equipment, services, or another government asset or resource for partisan political purposes,” and Secretary Noem’s jab at Congressional Democrats may be seen as such a partisan political use. That law isn’t being applied here, perhaps because the screens in question are in the area leased by, and under the control of, TSA.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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