FEMA was feeling the heat for its botched response to the hurricanes.
But what the agency was doing to storm victims was worse than anyone imagined.
And a FEMA official exposed one massive scandal that had all hell breaking loose.
Fired FEMA official says discrimination against Trump supporters was widespread
A whistleblower came forward to expose the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was avoiding the homes of supporters of President-elect Donald Trump after Hurricane Milton.
FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington told disaster relief workers to skip homes in Lake Placid, Florida that had signs or flags supporting Trump.
She gave this command to workers verbally and on a messaging app that was used by workers as they canvassed homes in the storm-damaged community.
Washington was fired by FEMA after this scandal was exposed but she insisted that she was a scapegoat for bigger problems in the agency.
FEMA had the same policy of avoiding homes in North Carolina which was ravaged by flooding after Hurricane Helene according to her.
Washington explained that FEMA would avoid situations they thought could be threatening to employees during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered.
“FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation. So, this is not isolated,” Washington said. “This is a colossal event of avoidance. Not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.”
She claimed that storm victims who were hostile to her team often had Trump signs.
“If you look at the record, there is what we call a community trend,” Washington recalled. “And unfortunately, it just so happened that the political hostility that was encountered by my team – and I was on two different teams during this deployment – they just so happened to have the Trump campaign signage.”
Fired FEMA employee tells the agency to produce its records
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell denied that its workers were ever trained to avoid homes because of political signs and called the situation an isolated incident.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” Criswell said in a statement. “I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct.”
Washington claimed that FEMA has internal documentation that Trump supporters were supposedly hostile, and the agency skipped them in the Carolinas.
“Senior leadership will lie to you and tell you that they do not know, but if you ask the DSA crew leads and specialists what they are experiencing in the field, they will tell you, ‘Demand for FEMA to give you those incident reports,’” Washington said. “They will substantiate what is happening to us in the field.”
A FEMA source told The New York Post that the agency has been skipping homes in conservative areas for years.
“I have heard from other entities who are serving in North Carolina that there was clear guidance saying to be ‘mindful’ of the types of people who are in Western North Carolina — they’re largely Republican, very conservative — very derogatory sorts of references in their culture,” the FEMA source said.
FEMA is facing investigations in Congress and Florida over its political discrimination against Trump supporters.
The agency is in line for new leadership and an overhaul when Trump returns to the White House next year.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
