The TSA has stopped claiming that long airport security lines aren’t a problem during this government shutdown. In a statement, the agency said that “This morning, TSA experienced a national rate of 7.6 percent unscheduled absences compared to a 3.2 percent rate one year ago, Monday, January 14, 2018” and that “security standards remain uncompromised at our nation's airports.” Wait times, on the other hand …
Miami and George Bush airports closed terminals to deal with TSA officers calling out sick rather than working without pay, while the TSA blamed some closed checkpoints at Dulles airport on snow. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport was a disaster Monday, with security lines of well over an hour and people missing flights as a result:
"We've never seen lines so long and now we're inline with people who've missed their flights," twigshomeandlighting wrote in an Instagram post, including video of the winding crowds.
Another Instagram user reported lines more than three hours long, while NBC News reported that the line “snaked through the Atlanta airport's atrium and baggage claim areas.” If you haven’t been to the Atlanta airport, know that the designated security line area is already larger than at most airports, the atrium is another not-small space, and the line reaching the baggage claim area means this was a truly next-level line.
Donald Trump doesn’t mind being cruel to federal workers and their families—he’s made that clear. The struggles of people living paycheck to paycheck simply don’t concern him. But with every day that goes by, Trump is widening the circle of people he’s willing to cause pain with his extended wall temper tantrum. And America can see that.