The Daily Wire discovered that a FEMA official told workers not to help anyone in homes with Donald Trump signs after Hurricane Milton.
The location was Highlands County, a deep-red area in Florida. On Tuesday, Trump received 70% of the votes there.
A FEMA supervisor told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid, internal messages viewed by The Daily Wire reveal. The supervisor, Marn’i Washington, relayed this message both verbally and in a group chat used by the relief team, multiple government employees told The Daily Wire.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.”
These people belonged to the DHS surge capacity force team. They volunteered to help the understaffed FEMA.
Washington gave the workers a “best practices” list. It included “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
The workers shared photos in the system to track which places they visited.
A few homes workers couldn’t access had explanations like “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”
Other explanations: “Per leadership no stop Trump flag” and “Trump sign.”
One person wrote in a complaint: “If they had damage or lost power for over thirty-six hours, it was my duty to inform them of benefits to which they are entitled through FEMA.”
The complaint noted that Washington’s directions will wear down even more trust of FEMA:
The whistleblower complaint says that the Trump guidance further undermines trust in FEMA and its response to the hurricanes.“This behavior raises significant concerns of discrimination against United States citizens because of their political views,” a copy of the complaint obtained by The Daily Wire said. “These actions not only undermine the integrity of our agency and create a hostile work environment for those who may hold differing political beliefs but they also threaten the very democracy of our country.”
“FEMA helps all survivors regardless of their political preference or affiliation and we are deeply disturbed by this employee’s actions. While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again. The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident. This is a matter that we take extremely seriously and we are doing everything we can to make sure all survivors receive support from FEMA. To date, we have helped over 365,000 households impacted by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the state of Florida and have provided over $898 million in direct assistance to survivors. We are horrified that this took place and therefore have taken extreme actions to correct this situation and have ensured that the matter was addressed at all levels. Helping people is what we do best and our workforce across the agency will continue to serve survivors for as long as it takes.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state to begin its own investigation.
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