The FEMA official who was fired for telling workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” in hurricane-stricken Florida claimed she was made into a scapegoat by FEMA to cover up the agency’s systemic anti-MAGA culture.
Former FEMA official Marn’i Washington revealed on Roland Martin’s “Unfiltered” podcast that she was blamed by the agency for her own political actions, but explained that she was only acting on FEMA’s top-down expectations to skip over pro-Trump homes.
“They all alleged that these actions were made of my own recognizance, and that it was for my own political advances. However, if you look at the record, there is what we call a community trend,” Washington said.
WOW. The recently fired FEMA crew leader, Marn'i Washington, claims FEMA leadership is making her the scapegoat of a wider scandal of avoidance of helping certain victims based on political beliefs:
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 12, 2024
"FEMA preaches avoidance first, and then de-escalation. This is not isolated.… pic.twitter.com/RyV2wNJKlp
“And unfortunately 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.”
“FEMA always preaches avoidance first, and then de-escalation. So this is not isolated. This is a colossal event of avoidance, not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas,” Washington continued.
“Senior leadership will lie to you and tell you that they do not know. But if you ask the DSA [Disaster Survivor Assistance] crew leads and specialists what they are experiencing in the field, they will tell you, ‘demand for FEMA to give you those incident reports,'” she added.
Washington’s testimony corroborates claims by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), who alleged on Monday that there are “text messages from Washington, DC to the supervisor advising them and directing them to do this.“
“So somebody higher up within FEMA was advising the people on the ground to do this,” Steube told Fox News. “So if it was happening in Lake Placid, I can guarantee you it was happening in other places all across the great state of Florida and the country.”
Steube also called for a congressional investigation into FEMA’s political discrimination against Trump supporters.
“The Oversight Committee needs to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “And the very first stop would be the person who was fired, put them under oath, and ask them who in their chain of command was directing her to do this.”
Watch her full interview:
BREAKING: Fired FEMA employee does first interview with @rolandsmartin, says her team's avoidance of homes in Florida was not an "isolated" incident
— Leif Le Mahieu (@leif_lemahieu) November 12, 2024
"This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida." pic.twitter.com/aCrTr6V771