MRC Free Speech America update summary: The Trump administration halted the so-called Quiet Skies program, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem announced via X on June 5.
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #28: Quiet Skies
Type of Censorship: Direct Action
Agencies Involved:
- Department of Homeland Security
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
- United States Secret Service (USSS)
Summary:
Under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) weaponized an alarming assortment of agencies to harass and silence the Biden administration’s political opponents. Even the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) became a pawn in its censorship initiatives.
- The Quiet Skies Blacklist
Just one day after veteran and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D, HI) appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show in July 2024 to discuss the Biden administration’s censorship, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) put her on its “Quiet Skies” blacklist, as reported by The Daily Caller and ZeroHedge. This action stripped Gabbard of her flight preclearance and subjected her to enhanced scrutiny and surveillance everytime she traveled.
According to The Boston Globe, Quiet Skies comes out of the public-private partnership between the TSA and the heavily monopolized airline industry, and “specifically targets travelers who ‘are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base.’” As early as 2020, an Inspector General’s report had concluded that the “TSA did not properly plan, implement, and manage the Quiet Skies program to meet the program’s mission.” The TSA has not identified a single terror threat which was averted through Quiet Skies.
- The Denial of Secret Service Protection
Exercising their First Amendment right to engage in political advocacy, supporters of free speech advocate and Biden critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. donated to his presidential campaign. The DHS worked to divert the use of those donations to costly security fees.
Despite having congressional authorization to protect “[m]ajor presidential candidates,” the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) denied pro-free speech presidential candidate — and Biden rival — Kennedy Jr. protection. This action by the USSS meant the astronomical cost of security fell on Kennedy’s campaign, while Kennedy’s opponent, Biden, could outsource his own costs on to the taxpayer. The USSS denied Kennedy protection even though both Kennedy’s father and uncle had been murdered in public by separate left-wing assassins.
Though the USSS briefly relented and gave Kennedy protection after another Biden opponent was shot in the face, it revoked the security without warning mere hours after Kennedy endorsed former and future President Donald J. Trump, according to Headline USA. This revocation came even as affiliates of Vice President Kamala Harris were actively arguing in court that Kennedy was still a major candidate and needed to be included on presidential ballots.
Key Individuals:
- Kim Cheatle, Director of the USSS
- Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
- Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security
- David Pekoske, Transportation Security Administrator
- Ronald Rowe, Acting Director of the USSS
