By SRH
Partisan FEMA activists weaponizing government
In an interview Monday, the FEMA supervisor accused of ordering workers to skip hurricane-ravaged Florida homes with Trump signs said the policy was widespread and she was being scapegoated.
Marn’i Washington was fired on Saturday after whistleblowers told the Daily Wire that the guidance prevented at least 20 homes with Trump banners or flags from qualifying for FEMA aid at the end of October into November. The agency employed her since 2019.
Washington instructed FEMA staff to “avoid homes advertising Trump” while they searched Lake Placid, Florida for government aid applicants, according to Daily Wire reports.
Highlands County is “a deep-red area located in south central Florida that backed Trump by 70% on Tuesday,” according to the Daily Wire. After category 3 storm Milton hit Siesta Key on October 9, tornadoes, severe wind, rain, and water decimated the area.
Washington’s order was one of the agency’s “best practices” along with “practice de-escalation and preventative measures,” “bring a towel with you tomorrow in the field,” and “frequent breaks and drink water.”
Washington, 39, told YouTube podcaster Roland Martin Monday that she had been following FEMA’s guideline of avoiding “politically hostile” households. She said her boss approved the message: “FEMA preaches avoidance first, then de-escalation. It’s not isolated. A massive avoidance event.”
“Not just in Florida. Washington said the incident reports would prove FEMA workers were faced with “hostility” at residences with Trump Campaign signage.
“If you look at the record, there is what we call a community trend, and 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,” Washington said.
“Senior leadership will lie to you and say they don’t know, but crew leads and specialists will tell you what they’re experiencing in the field,” she said. “Demand FEMA to give you those incident reports, they will substantiate our field situation.”
“FEMA’s very well aware of the incidents that take place, not just with my crew but with all the states’ crews,” Washington said.
The beleaguered former FEMA worker said she knew of houses tagged “politically hostile” with Harris-Walz or no political signage.
“We omitted these homes for safety precautions, not political play,” she said.
“If you greet any of our team members with hostility or aggression, we will deescalate and disengage and move on,” she stated. “We cannot risk dealing with that type of behavior.”
Washington told Martin that the dispute cost her her job at a private real estate firm and forced her to move due to threats.
The New York Post reported that a former FEMA official said the strategy of “openly” avoiding Trump-supporting residences had “been practiced by agency workers for years,” and that it had nothing to do with perceived “hostility.”
The ex-FEMA insider stated current personnel told him DEI emergency crews skip Trump-supporting residences.
The unofficial strategy is to “prioritize the most under resourced, marginalized communities first,” the insider claimed.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Friday that “blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is yet another reason why the Biden-Harris administration is in its final days” and has ordered an investigation.
At my instruction, the Division of Emergency Management is investigating the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Trump supporters in Florida, DeSantis stated. “New leadership is coming in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired.”
The House Oversight Committee began investigating FEMA on Friday and issued Criswell a letter seeking she testify at a hearing about the agency’s response to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
On X Tuesday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley (R) said the Senate Homeland Security Committee should investigate. Source ZeroHedge
