It was called “Quiet Skies,” a program developed by the Transportation Security Administration to secretly surveil individuals, often American citizens who were not under any legal investigation or even suspected of any actual wrongdoing but were shadowed by U.S. federal air marshals.

The TSA compiled and stored this secretly collected data from those who had been targeted and placed on the Quiet Skies list. Why they were targeted in the first place has been the controversy since the program first came to light.

Under the Biden administration, Quiet Skies came under renewed scrutiny after it was revealed that former Hawaii Representative and former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard was on the TSA surveillance list.

Thanks to a whistleblower, it was learned last year that Gabbard had been added to the list a day after she had publicly criticized then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Furthermore, internal documents showed this was not a case of mistaken identity, as the file accurately described her as “Former congresswoman from HI.”

A Senate report also noted that “three current Republican members of Congress were matched to a Silent Partner Program,” a similar TSA list to Quiet Skies but for international flights. The names of the lawmakers were redacted from the Senate report.

J6 defendants were also included on a similar TSA watchlist, many of whom had no documented criminal acts, and as a result were either banned from flying or subjected to enhanced security screening.

Twelve individuals were added to the watchlist in early 2022 after they removed their masks on a flight in protest of Biden’s COVID mandates.

Journalist Matt Taibbi, TSA whistleblower Mark Crowder, and whistleblower Tristan Leavitt were also found to be on the TSA list.

The picture this paints is clearly one of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the federal government against political opponents. None of the people listed was deserving of targeted surveillance. None had made any terrorist threats or engaged in any criminal activity to even remotely justify such suspicion.

Republican Senator Rand Paul blasted the TSA’s action as “unconstitutional,” calling for full government transparency. “TSA deemed hundreds of Americans as threats to national security simply for holding opposing political views. The federal government used its investigative authorities, anonymous tips, and university research institutions to build a flimsy case to put them on the watch list," Paul observed.

Whistleblower Mark Crowder, whose wife was placed on the TSA list after she attended a Donald Trump rally, blasted the use of the secretive watchlist as a "betrayal of American values.” He added, “The weaponization of federal law enforcement to harass and intimidate citizens exercising their constitutional rights is unconscionable.”

What is telling is that while Democrats and Leftmedia talkingheads are currently vilifying Trump for expressing his opinion regarding political opponents who targeted him with lawfare, calling for them to be held to account, all his administration’s actions have been above board and clear for all to see. Furthermore, his administration is going through the legal process.

Yet when it comes to the actions of the Biden administration, their authoritarian governmental abuse was done on the sly. They pressured social media companies to silence Americans’ free speech, while denying they were doing so. And now we are learning that they used the TSA’s Quiet Skies program to target political opponents for retribution for daring to express opposition to the Biden administration.

This is what a corrupt and dangerous administration looks like, not like Trump, who expresses his views freely and publicly. Fortunately, Quiet Skies has been shut down.