The Dictatorship
Kristi Noem stars in partisan video about the shutdown, to be shown in airports
In an administration that’s clearly preoccupied with camera-ready tactics and performative politicsHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stands out. Highlighting the South Dakota Republican’s over-the-top photo ops, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes noted a few months ago that “every day is Halloween” for the DHS secretary.
This coincided with a report from The New York Times that described Noem’s agency as the administration’s “Department of Homeland Publicity.”
With this in mind, few were surprised when the DHS started airing taxpayer-financed ads earlier this year, starring Noem, and thanking Donald Trump for his administration’s anti-immigration crackdown. (There’s little to suggest that the $200 million campaign was an effective use of resources.)
Several months later, the video appears to have a sequel. The Hill reported:
A new video featuring Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem will reportedly play at airports across the U.S. as the Trump administration seeks to cast blame for the lapse in government funding on Democrats. The short video, first reported by Fox News, shows Noem warning viewers about possible changes to airport operations due to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers not receiving pay since the shutdown entered its second week.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet agency confirmed that the video was poised to begin airing in American airports.
In theory, one might imagine a hypothetical video in which a DHS secretary offers the public worthwhile information about how the shutdown might affect air travelers.
In practice, however, Noem used the opportunity to push an overtly partisan message, blaming congressional Democrats for “refusing to fund the federal government.” She concluded: “Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”
Or put another way, after releasing one Noem ad that looked an awful lot like taxpayer-financed propaganda, the homeland security secretary did it again — with the latter including even more brazen partisanship.
It’s not yet clear exactly how much money went into this latest ad, or which airports will show Noem’s video. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”