Video Blaming Dems For Government Shutdown Won't Play At Newark Airport

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

October 16, 2025

The region’s three biggest airports will not show a video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming the federal government shutdown on Democrats.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bistate agency that oversees Newark Liberty, LaGuardia, and JFK airports, said airport-controlled screens will not play Noem’s video.

The 30-second spot, in which Noem warns that the shutdown could affect operations, violates the Port Authority’s longstanding policies that “prevent airing of politically partisan messages at our facilities,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the New Jersey Monitor.

The three airports join a growing number of facilities rejecting the video over concerns it violates a 1939 law known as the Hatch Act, which limits partisan political activities for federal workers.

The Port Authority also oversees Teterboro Airport.

Tuesday marks the 14th day of the government shutdown, which was caused by a partisan rift over competing measures to continue funding the government’s operations. Many federal employees are furloughed, while others, like air traffic controllers, are required to work without pay until a deal is reached.

The Trump administration continued on Tuesday to pin the blame for the shutdown on Democrats.

“The Trump Administration won’t shy away from sharing the truth with the American people: Democrats shut down the government because they want to give free health care to illegal aliens — and Americans are suffering as a result. Democrats could reopen the government at any point,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

Democrats deny that their plan to reopen the government includes free health care for undocumented immigrants. They argue they are withholding support of a GOP plan because it does not extend federal subsidies for health care plans purchased on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, largely echoed Noem’s script in a statement Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship,” McLaughlin said. “Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”

A spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, deferred comment to the Port Authority. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said New York officials are “focused on keeping the flying public safe – and that means not playing political ads in our airports.”

“When Kristi Noem isn’t busy trying to defund the police in New York, she’s apparently hard at work subjecting travelers to obviously false and nakedly partisan messaging,” she said in a statement.

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