After a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor was fired for telling disaster relief staffers to snub pro-Trump households, allegedly per agency policy, the head of the embattled emergency services bureau appeared before Congress this week to answer questions about the discrimination scandal.
In back-to-back U.S. House hearings Tuesday, two congressional committees grilled FEMA Director Deanne Criswell over whether it's as widespread of a practice as the ex-employee alleges.
Criswell, of course, repeatedly denied the accusations, insisting under oath that it was an "isolated incident" of "avoidance" restricted to the former FEMA official's own orders and hers alone.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell addresses the shocking reports of FEMA leaders instructing staff to bypass homes with Trump signs:
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 19, 2024
"I do not believe that this employee's actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA." pic.twitter.com/oQifqi1JAT
That's not what Criswell's axed underling says; she claims it's a scandal of "colossal" proportions stretching beyond Florida, where the politically motivated exclusions were first reported, and spanning across several storm-ravaged states, including Georgia and the Carolinas.
At the second congressional proceeding, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, divulged new whistleblower testimony that corroborates the fired FEMA official's side of the story and further casts doubt on Criswell's comments.
Comer revealed that a whistleblower has come forward to "credibly" claim that a FEMA contractor had advised an elderly disabled veteran's family, who were victims of Hurricane Helene in Georgia, to scrap their Trump campaign signage, telling them the agency views Trump supporters as "domestic terrorists."
The worker warned the family that his FEMA supervisor "does not take kindly to Trump supporters and that they are seen as domestic terrorists," Comer disclosed.
"The elderly homeowners were so frightened by this," Comer recounted, "and afraid they would not recover their loss that they removed all Trump materials and signs."
However, the whistleblower reported, FEMA never returned to the family's residence even after they removed their Trump merchandise.
🚨BREAKING- Chairman Comer reveals a NEW whistleblower in a different state claims that FEMA purposely avoided the homes ofTrump supporters when providing disaster relief.
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 19, 2024
"During the recess for votes, my staff made contact with a new whistleblower who provided a credible… pic.twitter.com/HV03qRpXLG
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, now-fired FEMA official Marn'i Washington directed personnel surveying the property damage in deep-red Highlands County, Florida, to "avoid homes advertising Trump" when allocating aid. This meant those residents weren't afforded equal opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. As a result, at least 20 residences either flying Trump flags or bearing Trump signs in their backyards were bypassed during recovery and response efforts, whistleblowers told The Daily Wire. FEMA workers would enter into the government's logging system case notes such as "Trump sign, no contact per leadership" and "Per leadership no stop Trump flag" to track addresses they did not visit, citing superiors as the reason why contact wasn't attempted.
Internal correspondence shows Washington sending subordinates a list of "best practices" to follow, which included the directive to not approach any homeowners who showed support for Donald Trump. Washington has since insisted that she never wrote those guidelines — they came from her higher-ups, she said — and that there's longstanding guidance on avoiding "politically hostile" areas even predating her hiring.
Whistleblowers say that relief workers were told it was "best practice" to pass over houses "advertising Trump."
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
The workers would enter into the system that they made no contact with the residents, blaming the directive: "Trump sign, no contact per leadership" pic.twitter.com/1b0uL7pSDy
"We want to know who's lying. Somebody's lying," Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chair of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's emergency management subcommittee, which questioned Criswell earlier in the day, said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. "We got two sets of stories. One of them is right; the other one is wrong."
"Both statements can't be true. So someone's not giving us the facts. I'm trying to figure out who's not telling the truth," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during the Oversight Committee hearing. The top Republican lawmaker pressed Criswell to identify where exactly these marching orders came from in the organizational hierarchy and questioned why she never directly spoke to the personnel who were part of this 13-person "best practices" group chat with Washington.
🚨 FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell admits she HAS NOT talked to the 13 people on the FEMA text thread that directed workers to bypass pro-Trump homes. pic.twitter.com/G9dPUxnXSw
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 19, 2024
When Criswell couldn't name Washington's superior, who managed her at the time, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) chastised the FEMA chief for being unable to explain the bureau's basic hierarchical structure. "You have a chain of command before it gets to you, but you have no clue about what's happened to that chain of command and why somebody would let that happen under your watch," McClain said. Criswell simply said, "I have an agency of over 22,000 employees."
McClain, not satisfied with Criswell's non-answers, told The Daily Wire: "She fired the person who sent out the text, fantastic, but what about all of the layers in between who knew that it was going on [...] what enabled, what empowered that person to do that?"
If the @fema director can't explain the basic hierarchy of her agency, how does she know this is an isolated incident? I expect a full report from her investigation to show they will fully prevent their agency from discriminating against suffering Americans based on politics. pic.twitter.com/bzbIjwLtf2
— Representative Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) November 20, 2024
"Senior leadership will lie to you and tell you that they do not know," Washington asserted on a black news network. "But if you ask the [Disaster Survivor Assistance] crew leads and specialists what they are experiencing in the field, they will tell you."
"This was the culture," Washington claimed in a follow-up "Fox News @ Night" interview. "They were already avoiding these homes based on community trends from hostile political encounters."
In fact, she said, the protocol is part of a broader department policy meant to ensure staff safety and not intended to discriminate against Trump supporters specifically. Per the "precautions" in place, FEMA staffers are instructed to avoid any situation that may make them feel "uncomfortable" or unsafe, like an off-leash vicious animal, Washington specified. These fears are similar, she suggested.
"Why is this coming down on me?" Washington lamented. "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."
Fox News host Trace Gallagher asked why Washington thinks she was made the scapegoat, if she was not the first or only FEMA supervisor doing this. Washington said it's because she got caught, and the federally funded agency needed a fall guy.
"And it's easy to then say, 'Well, ha ha! It's her name. It's her writing. Make her accountable for it.' But I'm just simply executing, again, what was coming down from my superiors," Washington said.