FEMA official fired for telling staff to avoid helping Trump supporters says agency scapegoating her
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor who was fired by FEMA claims that FEMA is scapegoating her. Marn’i Washington was fired for instructing the agency’s relief workers to avoid reaching out to homeowners in Florida who had Trump signs displayed outside their homes.
Washington told “Fox News @ Night” on Wednesday that the agency is throwing her under the bus for avoiding Trump supporters, which she alleges is a policy that came from her higher-ups.
“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.
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Fired FEMA supervisor Marni Washington alleged to Fox News Channel this week that she is being scapegoated by the agency for its policy to avoid approaching Florida homes displaying signs for President-elect Trump. (Fox News Channel)
Washington was fired by FEMA after outrage erupted that she had instructed disaster relief workers canvassing in Lake Placid, Florida, after Hurricane Milton to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
The Daily Wire first reported the story based on internal messages it obtained from Washington sent to her subordinates. The outlet stated that government employees told the outlet that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were bypassed from the end of October and into November due to the “best practices” guidance from the official.
FEMA’s administrator on employee misconduct, Deanne Criswell, confirmed to Fox News Digital over the weekend that the supervisor was fired and that her actions were “reprehensible.”
Another FEMA spokesperson told Fox that Washington’s actions were an “isolated incident.”
However, Washington insisted that’s not true. In response to Fox News host Trace Gallagher asking, “So you’re telling me these orders came from somebody above?,” she said, “Correct.”
The former FEMA employee alleged that the Florida team had already been avoiding Trump voters’ homes prior to her work there. “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 explained.
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Gallagher then asked why Washington was the “scapegoat,” to which she replied that it was simply because she was the one who was caught, and they could pin the 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.”
The host followed up by asking if the former FEMA worker came up with any of the instructions on the “best practices” list she gave to subordinates that included the memo to avoid homes with Trump signs.
Washington denied she did. When asked how she intends to prove the instruction was wider agency policy, she said she had called on other FEMA employees to “come forward and discuss our avoidance policies, our de-escalation policies.”
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She went on to say that these policies aren’t about avoiding Trump supporters specifically but avoiding all situations that may make FEMA employees feel unsafe or “uncomfortable.”
“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. If you have loose dogs, and someone on the team was comfortable with dogs and another person is not, we can’t go to that home because of safety precautions.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
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