A hot mic before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s Monday press conference picked up an unexpectedly candid glimpse into how some TSA agents actually feel about their jobs.

The audio captured one of the agents complaining about being “scared” of his superior before the event at Tampa International Airport in Florida, where Noem presented over a dozen TSA agents with $10,000 bonus checks for working without pay during the government shutdown.

“I used to be terrified of [her] when I started in HR, I was so scared of her,” a TSA agent could be heard saying in a video shared by reporter Alexander Willis to X. “She was just really busy; she did, like, discipline stuff in HR, so being an officer, she didn’t trust me to be around any of it because she didn’t know if I had a big mouth or

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