At least 20 homes in Florida were allegedly bypassed by FEMA disaster relief for having Trump signage on their properties.
Last week, a bombshell report from The Daily Wire exposed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for neglecting to assist Florida homes damaged by Hurricane Milton if they had any kind of Trump sign or banner on their property.
Marn’i Washington was named the FEMA supervisor who directed her disaster relief team in Lake Placid, Florida to “avoid homes advertising Trump” in a now-viral text message outlining their “best practices” guidance. At least 20 homes were bypassed according to government employees, with reasons being recorded as “Trump sign no entry per leadership” in their government system.
On an episode of the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” podcast, Washington said her instructions complied with FEMA protocol to avoid homes determined to be hostile or dangerous to workers. She claimed that after her team members were allegedly verbally and physically threatened by hurricane victims who had Trump signage on their properties, she followed FEMA’s “avoidance” and de-escalation policy. She said, “They all allege that these actions were made in my own recognizance and that it was for my own political advances. However, if you look at the record, there is what we call a ‘community trend,’ and, unfortunately, it just so happened that the political hostility that was encountered by my team…they just so happened to have the Trump campaign signage.”
A FEMA spokesperson insisted it was an “isolated incident” and “the employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes, and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident.” Washington disputed this, saying there were similar “avoidance” protocols in place in North Carolina. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell confirmed to Fox News Digital that Washington has been fired and called her actions “reprehensible” and a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.
In early October, Trump accused the federal government and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” that were affected by Hurricane Helene in a post.
Chairman James Comer of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has called for a hearing on the incident to be held on November 19. The hearing, titled “Oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency”, will include witness testimony by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against current and former officials at FEMA for these actions and is seeking punitive damages against Washington and Criswell. Moody said, “Hurricane season is not over, and the federal agency in charge of emergency response is embroiled in scandal – caught withholding aid from storm victims in Florida who support President Trump. I am taking swift legal action to find out how far this political discrimination reaches and to make sure all Americans who fall victim to devastating storms are served, regardless of their political affiliation.”
The lawsuit states, “FEMA workers followed these instructions and entered in a government database messages such as ‘Trump sign no entry per leadership’…According to whistleblowers, ‘at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags’ in Lake Placid, Florida, ‘were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is supportive of the legal action and further instructed other state agencies to take “any action necessary” to investigate and hold alleged wrongdoers accountable.
On Wednesday, Washington told Fox News @ Night that the agency is throwing her under the bus for avoiding Trump supporters, which she alleges is a policy that came from her higher-ups. She said, “Why is this coming down on me? I am the person that jotted down the notes from my superiors and my notation in [Microsoft] Teams chat was exposed from their search capacity team.” She claims that the Florida team was already avoiding those homes before her work there, explaining, “This was the culture. They were already avoiding these homes based on community trends from hostile political encounters. It has nothing to do with the campaign sign. It just so happened to be part of the community trend.” When asked by Fox News host Trace Gallagher why she was the “scapegoat”, Washington replied that it was simply because she was the one who was caught, and they could pin the scandal on her.
FEMA has responded with a formal statement from Criswell, saying, “One FEMA employee departed from these values to advise her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump. 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.”
