WASHINGTON — She voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security. She whipped her caucus to block the funding bill that would have kept TSA agents on the payroll. She once said publicly that families suffering during a government shutdown is "one of the few leverage times we have."
And then she breezed right past the TSA line — while everyone else stood in it.
Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, was caught on video breezing past the long TSA security lines at a Washington, D.C., airport — cutting ahead of the same Americans stuck waiting because of a shutdown her party forced.
The video, first shared by former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, went viral within hours.
🚨 BREAKING: House Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark caught SKIPPING TSA security as she rushes out of Washington DC after voting to defund DHS— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 28, 2026
Denies TSA pay, skips the lines.
There is a reason the people have HAD ENOUGH! Do not vote Democrat in 2026.
📽️ @seanspicer pic.twitter.com/BpKaJJtbmT
Clark represents Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District, which includes Revere, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Arlington, Lexington, Framingham, Waltham, Watertown, Cambridge, Woburn, Winchester, Natick, and Belmont. As House Democratic Whip, she is responsible for rounding up votes on party-line legislation — including the Democratic caucus's decision to block the DHS funding bill that would have kept agencies like TSA, the Secret Service, and border patrol fully operational.
The result: TSA agents across the country are working without pay. Security lines are getting longer. And the traveling public is paying the price for a political standoff that Democrats have weaponized as a bargaining chip.
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Clark apparently doesn't have to wait like everyone else.
'One of the few leverage times we have'
This isn't the first time Clark has shown her hand on shutdown strategy. During a previous government funding fight, she said the quiet part out loud:
"Of course there will be families that are going to suffer... but it is one of the few leverage times we have."
🚨 @WhipKClark, the number two House Democrat, on the Democrat Shutdown: "Of course there will be families that are going to suffer... but it is one of the few leverage times we have."— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 22, 2025
These people are SICK! pic.twitter.com/7MRHsmGMGx
Families suffer. TSA agents work for free. Security lines stretch through the terminal. And the woman who helped orchestrate the shutdown breezes past the lines her shutdown created — on her way out of town.
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'No Kings' — but queens get a fast pass
The video surfaced on the same day that more than 160 "No Kings" protests swept across Massachusetts — the second-most of any state in the country — with thousands marching against what organizers called threats to democracy and government overreach.
The irony was not lost on critics: while protesters rallied against unchecked power, Massachusetts' most powerful Democrat was caught exercising exactly the kind of privilege the movement claims to oppose. No lines, no waiting, no consequences — while the TSA agents staffing those checkpoints worked without pay because of a shutdown her party engineered.
No kings, apparently. But queens get a fast pass.
Clark's office has not responded to the video.
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