Voice modified to accentuate the absurdity of Noem and her naked politicization of the government shutdown. Kristi Noem might be the worst of Trump’s cabinet, but they’re all so awful that that title changes daily.
Source: CNN
“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.”
CNN’s Zachary Wolf posits that it could be a violation of the Hatch Act, but even it was, likely nothing would be done about it.
Officials aren’t technically supposed to engage in direct politics while on the clock, so Noem’s recording dances up to the line of violating the spirit of that law, the Hatch Act, passed with bipartisan support in 1939 after workers hired by government agencies during the Great Depression were accused of doing campaign work on behalf of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration.
It’s called the Hatch Act after Sen. Carl Hatch, the New Mexico Democrat who pushed for it, but the technical name is better: “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.”
