House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Saturday the committee has launched an investigation into the story reported Friday by The Daily Wire which found that FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington told government employees working in Lake Placid, Florida to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed neighborhoods to find residents who could qualify for federal aid.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell issued a statement Saturday announcing the firing of Washington who she said departed from FEMA values “to advise her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump.”
Criswell called Washington’s actions “reprehensible.” Comer agreed but wants more than a statement and has asked Criswell to testify before his committee on Nov. 19.
Daily Wire reporter Leif Le Mahieu broke the story, posted on Friday. Speaking Monday on American Family Radio, the journalist explained: “We spoke with whistleblowers who told us that they were instructed by their supervisor both verbally and in the group chat to avoid homes advertising Trump as they were working in Lake Placid, Florida.”
Trump took 70.1% of the vote in Lake Placid’s Highlands County last week. The area was hit hard by Hurricane Milton in October, days after flooding from Hurricane Helene devastated many areas in North Carolina and surrounding states.
“So, it's a very Trump-supportive county, and [the whistleblowers] told me that they ended up skipping around 20 houses with Trump signs or Trump flags. They were very upset that they were instructed to do this,” Le Mahieu told show host Jenna Ellis.
House committee not the only investigation
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said there will be a state investigation as well. Now other states are wondering if FEMA has been above board in other weather-struck areas.
“Tennessee announced yesterday that they would also be probing whether maybe Tennesseans were discriminated against in recent response to Hurricane Helene,” Le Mahieu reported.
Trump got 64.2% of the vote in Tennessee.
Federal hearings often provide great live television drama, but they don’t always provide accountability. How much FEMA is held responsible for ignoring taxpayers who help fund its budget remains to be seen.
“That kind of depends on what answers we’re able to get,” Le Mahieu said.
The biggest questions are how high up the chain does the anti-Trump order extend and what action was taken once it was discovered? The Daily Wire reporter offered an example.
“… A whistleblower complaint was filed on Oct. 27, but it appears that no action was taken until after our report on Nov. 8. So, who all in the Department of Homeland Security knew about the guidance? When did they know about it, and if they did know about it, why didn't they act sooner?” Le Mahieu said.
According to the journalist, sources told The Daily Wire that upper levels of command were not immediately bothered by news that Trump supporters were denied federal resources. In fact, Washington initially was not fired but was simply moved to continue work in another county.
“That seems to mean they knew about it, but they didn’t take any action until after our report was published,” Le Mahieu suggested.
“If we're able to get communications showing that they knew about this earlier, that means this is even a bigger scandal because they knew that an employee was discriminating against a specific political group, and then they didn't take any action and maybe even just tried to scoop it under the rug. Then if they knew about it for over a week, and they only moved [Washington] to another county, that raises a whole lot of other questions.”
Times lets incorrect ‘fact check’ stand
A New York Times “fact check” on Oct. 4 claimed that Trump was lying when he said FEMA had intentionally bypassed his supporters whose homes had suffered great damage.
The Times, at present, has not published a correction, even though Criswell has confirmed The Daily Wire report. The Times has written about Washington’s firing.
“We had all these headlines about false claims about FEMA. The [claims] appear to be correct. Now all those media outlets have covered our story and covered it pretty down the middle. The New York Times wrote about the FEMA employee being fired after our report. The Washington Post has covered it.
“The mainstream media has covered this report because it’s been so egregious. Whether that results in any thoughts about their previous coverage, I guess we’ll find out,” Le Mahieu said.
Trump has not publicly spoken about the weekend’s FEMA news, but his son, Donald Trump Jr., did.
“This is outrageous, even for the Democrats in charge, and should be criminal,” Trump Jr., wrote on X. “These people should be ousted from FEMA, government and society! A full investigation is in order!”
