The terminated FEMA employee who allegedly directed response teams to pass over the homes of Trump supporters in Florida defended herself Tuesday, saying the houses in question were skipped over for safety purposes, not due to political affiliation.
Marn’i Washington claimed that the political affiliation of homes bypassed by the agency was coincidental and maintains she abided by FEMA policy.
“If you look at the record, there is what we call a ‘community trend’ and unfortunately, it just so happened that the political hostility that was encountered by my teams [had] the Trump campaign signage,” she said during an appearance on Roland Martin Unfiltered. “We omitted these homes for safety precautions — not because of political plight.”
She went on to further explain the agency’s guidelines for interacting with antagonistic victims. “FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation. So, this is not isolated,” Washington said. “This is a colossal event of avoidance. Not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.”
Washington urged authorities to demand FEMA release the incident reports, confident that “they will substantiate what is happening to us in the field.”
“Senior leadership will lie to you and tell you that they do not know,” she continued.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell immediately issued a statement following the initial reports of selective relief efforts.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” the statement read. “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,” Criswell added.
The administrator vowed to continue to do everything she can to “make sure this never happens again.”
Reached for comment after Washington’s interview, FEMA directed National Review to the administrator’s earlier statement. Washington could not be reached for additional comment.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis referred to the practice as “targeted discrimination” of citizens in his state and directed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to initiate an investigation.
“The blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is yet another reason why the Biden-Harris administration is in its final days,” he wrote on social-media.
“New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired,” he added.
Criswell is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee next Tuesday, the committee said in a post on X after Washington’s most recent interview.