Hot Mic at ICE Barbie Event Catches TSA Agents Admitting They’re ‘Terrified’

The hot mic before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference on Monday captured an unexpectedly candid look at how some TSA agents really feel about their jobs. The audio shows one of the agents complaining that he was “scared” of his superior before the incident at Florida’s Tampa International Airport, where Noem presented $10,000 bonus checks to more than a dozen TSA agents for working without pay during the government shutdown. “I used to be so afraid [her] I was so scared of him when I started in HR,” a TSA agent was heard saying in a video shared by reporter Alexander Willis to X. “He was really busy; He was disciplining things in HR, so he didn’t trust me as an officer in these matters because he didn’t know if I was a loudmouth or not.