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An official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been axed after text messages showed that she ordered hurricane relief workers to skip houses that needed assistance but who promoted President-elect Donald Trump.
The woman, identified as Marn’i Washington, issued her directive both verbally and in text to her team.
The FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance crew leader for Highland County, instructed workers who were looking for homes that qualified for emergency assistance to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they searched Lake Placid, Florida, The Daily Wire reported.
“The government employees told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance, meaning they were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. Images shared with The Daily Wire show that houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote in the government system messages such as: ‘Trump sign no entry per leadership,’” the report said.
One relief worker expressed their dismay at the order when they spoke to The Daily Wire.
“I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference,” they said. “When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”
“I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them,” the worker said. “It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.”
Photos obtained by The Daily Wire of the system used to track what relief workers were doing had “not able to access property” marked with reasons like “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced Saturday that the woman had been fired.
“More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors. Recently, 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,” the FEMA administrator said in a press release. “This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible.”
“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,” she said.
The administrator said that the matter had been referred to Special Counsel for investigation.
“We take our mission to help everyone before, during and after disasters seriously. This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel. I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again,” she said.
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said that she is concerned that some of her constituents may have been targeted.
“My district was one of the most heavily impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and it has been sickening to hear that more than half of my constituents were discriminated against for their political beliefs. Big government bureaucrats despise everyday Americans because they are not politically expedient for them,” the Republican said to The Daily Wire on Saturday.
“I demand answers from FEMA Administrator Criswell and Congress must fully investigate this matter. The days of putting Americans and America last are over,” she said.
