A former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee said the guidance to skip over houses with Trump signs and banners is part of a larger diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issue with the agency, saying it was “completely avoidable.”
Chelsea Nied, a former FEMA employee who was deployed 66 times in 22 states on the front lines of natural disasters, told Fox News Digital that Marn’i Washington, who has since been fired as a FEMA supervisor, should have refused the direction after spotting the “glaring political line” over instructing relief workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
“What was really striking about the list that Washington sent to relief workers was that you have a glaring political line after seeing common directions, like drink water, be hydrated, communicate,” she said. “And in my experience, particularly from being in external affairs, when you see something like that doesn’t look normal you need to escalate it.”
Public backlash came after FEMA confirmed to Fox News Digital that an employee had instructed aid workers to deny relief to residents who had Trump campaign signs at their homes. The Daily Wire was the first to report it.
The outlet said approximately 20 homes in Lake Placid, Florida, were passed over and not given government assistance after Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene.
Deanne Criswell, FEMA’s administrator on employee misconduct, previously told Fox News Digital that Washington’s actions were “reprehensible,” and another FEMA spokesperson told Fox that Washington’s actions were an “isolated incident.”
Washington, though, told “Fox News @ Night” that FEMA was throwing her under the bus for avoiding Trump supporters, which she alleges is a policy that came from her superiors.
“It’s unacceptable and on behalf of the federal government, I’d like my office to apologize, because this should never be acceptable, especially in regard to political discrimination and the fact that so many of you lost your homes during Hurricane Milton,” she said.
The representative said they are launching a full-scale investigation into the FEMA allegations after they heard that this was not an isolated incident.
“There needs to be a full overhaul in FEMA and these people need to be held responsible and if that means criminals as well,” she said. “We have no idea how many people have been impacted as of right now, but what I can tell you is based on what we saw, it’s impacted a lot of people.”