The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), under the Biden administration, has been caught red-handed turning air travel into a political battlefield against American citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dropped a bombshell this week, unveiling an internal investigation that exposed the TSA’s systematic targeting of individuals based on their political stances, particularly those opposing mask mandates and those connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol unrest, with no evidence of actual threats to aviation security, as Just the News reports.
Let’s rewind to early 2021, when the TSA, using the Jan. 6 events as a flimsy excuse, began watch-listing dozens of Americans -- 234 to be exact -- many without a shred of proof tying them to unlawful acts.
A mid-January 2021 memo from TSA Intelligence & Analysis even greenlit flagging folks merely suspected of traveling to Washington, D.C., around that time, as if geography alone made someone a danger.
Fast forward to mid-2021, and the TSA was still at it, denying boarding and harassing passengers who dared to resist mask mandates on planes -- six months after the CDC eased indoor mask rules. Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill didn’t mince words, stating that Biden-era officials “systematically watch-listed” dissenters.
If that’s not a power trip, what is? This wasn’t about safety; it was about control, plain and simple.
Here’s the kicker: while the TSA obsessed over mask protesters and Jan. 6 attendees, they turned a blind eye to individuals involved in the violent 2020 George Floyd protests, including those who attacked police and torched property. A TSA statement confirmed this bias, noting that career intelligence officials and even the agency’s own chief privacy officer raised red flags about potential violations, only to be ignored.
Double standards much? If you’re burning cities, apparently, you get a free pass, but question a mask rule and you’re a national threat.
Even more absurd, at least 24 people tied to anti-mask groups and 12 passengers who removed masks on flights in April 2022 were slapped onto watch lists. That’s not security; that’s petty vendetta.
The abuses didn’t stop at everyday citizens -- prominent figures like former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, now Director of National Intelligence, were surveilled on multiple flights in mid-2024, even after being cleared. Federal Air Marshals tailed her on an early August flight, ignoring her status on the cleared list just a day prior.
Meanwhile, favoritism ran rampant, with William “Billy” Shaheen, the spouse of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, getting blanket exemptions from the Quiet Skies program despite traveling with a suspected terrorist multiple times. A DHS statement from June 2025 revealed that then-TSA Administrator David Pekoske personally intervened after lobbying from Sen. Shaheen -- talk about elite privilege.
Contrast that with the wife of a Federal Air Marshal, branded a “domestic terrorist” and tracked for two years over a baseless Jan. 6 accusation, only to be cleared due to mistaken identity. Where’s the accountability for such reckless overreach?
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem isn’t playing games, announcing via X that she’s referring this scandal to the Department of Justice and Congress, slamming the Biden-era TSA for targeting Americans over “political differences.” She called out former Administrator Pekoske for abusing authority, a sentiment Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) echoed by labeling it “another example of weaponization” that’s “absolutely unacceptable.”
Action followed words, with five senior TSA leaders ousted, including top officials in operations and intelligence, while the agency’s Intelligence & Analysis office faces a major overhaul to curb watch-listing abuses. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also exposed the Quiet Skies program as a political surveillance tool in a report released the same week, a program DHS finally axed in June 2025 after it burned $200 million annually with zero terrorist busts.
Let’s be clear: the TSA’s job is to stop real threats, not to play thought police or cater to connected elites while punishing dissenters. This scandal proves once again that unchecked progressive agendas in government erode our freedoms -- thankfully, the Trump administration is stepping in to restore sanity and protect the rights of every American traveler.
