O'Hare and Midway airports won't show Kristi Noem video criticizing Democrats for government shutdown
O'Hare and Midway airports in Chicago have decided not to show travelers a video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticizing Democrats for the ongoing federal government shutdown, joining a growing list of airports refusing to air the video.
The Chicago Department of Aviation confirmed it declined a request from the Department of Homeland Security to post the video at O'Hare and Midway.
"Advertising at Chicago's airports, including promotional materials and public service announcements, must comply with CDA's Advertising Guidelines, which prohibit content that endorses or opposes any named political party. These guidelines help ensure the airports remain welcoming and neutral spaces for all travelers," a CDA spokesperson said in a statement.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said he ordered the Department of Aviation not to play the Noem video at Chicago's airports.
"The video shows DHS Secretary Kristi Noem making political assertions about the ongoing government shutdown. Our airports are for Chicagoans and visitors to travel safely to and from our city; they are not for the Trump administration to spread propaganda using taxpayer resources," Johnson said in a statement.
Other airports – including in Atlanta, Buffalo, Charlotte, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle – also have declined to play the video, with a spokesperson for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport telling Newsweek that airport policy "does not permit political content."
Political science professor Stephen Maynard Caliendo said the video recorded by Noem could violate more than airport rules, pointing to a possible violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law passed in 1939, which aims in part to ensure federal programs are nonpartisan.
The video, which has been sent to airports across the country by the Trump administration, would have played in TSA security lines.
"Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay," Noem says in the video.
She then says that the agency will do what it can to avoid delays that would impact travelers.
"Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government," she says.
Tasked with keeping travelers safe on the ground and in the air, TSA officers and air traffic controllers are deemed essential by the government, requiring them to keep working during the shutdown without immediate pay.
However, an uptick in workers calling out sick has led to sporadic flight delays and cancellations, raising concerns over staffing shortages.
Amid the government shutdown, Tuesday was the first day that the nation's air traffic controllers received only a partial paycheck.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union representing air traffic controllers, said Tuesday was the first day controllers have received only a partial paycheck due to the shutdown, with pay to be completely suspended starting Oct. 28 without an end to the shutdown.
Air traffic controllers at O'Hare handed out pamphlets on Tuesday, addressing what National Air Traffic Controllers Association Great Lakes Regional Vice President Drew MacQueen called bad information about the shutdown.
"We're hoping that the public reads it, and then they'll reach out to their local congressman," he said.
MacQueen said air traffic controllers are showing up to work, and are not causing increased delays, although they are at critical staffing levels, short thousands of positions.
"It's been very stressful. It's been very hard," he said.
MacQueen said there have been delays before the shutdown due to the air traffic controller shortage.
"Now it's just heightened, because people think it's because controllers aren't showing up for work, and nothing could be further from the truth," he said.
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