The former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official fired for directing disaster relief staff to snub pro-Trump households hit by Hurricane Milton isn’t done dragging the department down with her.
Ex-employee Marn’i Washington appeared on Fox News for a tell-all interview Wednesday, marking a continuation of her scorched-earth media circuit after she told a black news network it’s actually agency policy to discriminate against “politically hostile” homes during disaster response.
On “Fox News @ Night,” Washington clarified that bypassing properties that sport Trump signs is part of a broader policy designed to protect the safety of FEMA personnel. So, staffers have the right to skip over houses displaying Trump signage if they feel “uncomfortable,” she said, similar to the fear of aggressive animals that are unchained and running loose.
So, the policy isn’t specifically about avoiding Trump supporters per se, Washington insisted. The guidelines instruct FEMA workers to avoid any situation that may make them feel unsafe — such as an off-leash dog, she suggested.
“I know the highlight here is the Trump campaign signage, but if someone is in another like an urban community and it’s a different culture and someone feels uncomfortable, we can’t go to that home,” Washington explained. “If you have loose dogs, and someone on the team is comfortable with dogs and another person is not, we can’t go to that home because of safety precautions.”
“So the people [with] FEMA were fearing the Trump houses like they were fearing people with vicious dogs in their backyards?” Fox News host Trace Gallagher pressed.
“Exactly,” Washington replied. “Unfortunately, the passionate supporters for Trump, some of them were a little bit violent.”
“But all of them were painted with the same broad brush. All of them as being, ‘We’re not going to go near these because we think they’re all bad people,'” Gallagher retorted.
“No,” she said, “because some were registered. Some did receive case inquiries and updates. Some of them came outside and said, ‘Hi, I appreciate what you’re doing. I would like to participate.’ And then some were very vocal and firm that they didn’t want anything to do with FEMA, and they thought that we were crooks.”
According to internal communications leaked to The Daily Wire, the fired FEMA supervisor told subordinates (verbally and via text) 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.
“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,” Washington said.
“So you’re telling me these orders came from somebody above?” Gallagher asked Washington.
“Correct,” she affirmed, asserting that she was just following orders from her higher-ups, but now she’s the fall guy.
Washington then alleged that this policy of “avoidance” was put in place prior to her hiring and already was widely practiced.
“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,” Washington went on.
Gallagher questioned why Washington was the scapegoat, if she was not the first or only FEMA supervisor doing this.
To which, Washington said it’s simply because she was the one ultimately caught, and the federal agency moved to swiftly pin the discrimination scandal on her.
“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 maintained.
When asked how she intends to prove that the directive was agency-wide policy, Washington said she has called on other FEMA employees to “come forward and discuss our avoidance policies, our de-escalation policies.”
Following Washington’s firing, FEMA suggested she had made a managerial decision independent of the agency. Washington’s instructions were not pre-approved, a FEMA spokesperson countered, and she had “no authority” to issue those directions.
FEMA further stressed that this was an “isolated incident,” contrary to Washington saying it’s “a colossal event” spanning across several storm-ravaged states beyond Florida, including the Carolinas and Georgia.
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell released a statement of her own over the weekend on the “employee misconduct,” in which she called Washington’s actions “reprehensible” and “a clear violation” of FEMA’s core values:
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. 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.
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.
Next week, Criswell will have to answer questions before Congress about the discriminatory practice, whether it’s widespread, and if it’s, indeed, standard protocol.
Criswell is scheduled to face two back-to-back U.S. House hearings within a single day of intense grilling, as concerns continue to grow over whether the taxpayer-funded emergency response bureau is politicizing recovery services.
