UPDATE: Via text a spokesperson for the senator’s team directed us to statements from the senator.
“Spokane’s Airport won’t air Kristi Noem’s miserable propaganda, and that’s a good thing,” Murray said. “Donald Trump is not a king, and dog killer Kristi Noem can’t just force our airports to break the law on her behalf.”
SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane International Airport won’t run a controversial video recorded by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Noem has recorded several videos to play out in airports across the country, and following the advent of the government shutdown the secretary recorded a video blaming Democrats.
The Spokane International Airport said it won’t play that message because doing so would violate its policies.
“Due to the Airport’s established First Amendment Policy, it is unable to accommodate the request to post U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Noem’s video on the Airport’s owned monitor located in the public space of the Airport’s Terminal building. In Section 2, paragraph B “Prohibited Advertising Content,” item 12, specifically states, “Political issues. Advertisements that promote or oppose (i) the election of any person for any office; or (ii) any legislation, initiative, referendum or ballot proposition measure,” The Director of Marketing and Public Affairs for the Spokane airports said Sunday via text.
President Donald Trump’s administration has posted several messages on official government accounts blaming Democrats for the shutdown, something Democrats and some legal experts have suggested likely violates the Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act of 1939 was passed to limit political activities of federal employees, as well as some other employees in state and local governments who work in programs connected to the federal government.
“The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to a summary on the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
When reached by NonStop Local, an aid in Democratic Senator Patty Murray’s office said the .
Nonstop Local has reached out to the secretaries team for statement.
