FEMA Director Deanne Criswell on Tuesday blasted an agency supervisor who directed emergency workers to avoid making contact with Florida homes with Donald Trump signs, and said she will ask her inspector general to see how deep the problem goes.
Ms. Criswell, testifying to Congress, confirmed the employee’s actions, saying they recovered her written directive to her 11-person team to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
The director said 20 homes were affected.
“The actions of this employee are unacceptable,” Ms. Criswell said, though she rejected some Republicans’ accusations that her agency has been “weaponized” against Republicans.
“I do not believe there is a widespread cultural problem,” she said.
Ms. Criswell said she moved quickly earlier this month to fire the employee, whom she didn’t name.
The woman, Marn’i Washington, has come forward and defended her actions, saying she didn’t see it as political targeting but rather a matter of security. She said homes with Trump signs had been the scene of confrontations with FEMA personnel.
In an interview Monday with NewsNation, she said she was acting under orders from higher-ups.
“So firstly, I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders,” she said.
Ms. Criswell said they have probed and found no evidence of anyone else, including her supervisors, ordering disparate treatment of Trump homes.
“We find no information at this point that there was anything beyond her direction to her employees,” the director said.
The director also rejected Ms. Washington’s argument that it was a matter of security, not politics.
Ms. Criswell said FEMA employees are trained in how to handle hostile behavior, but it’s about reacting at the time of a visit. She said nothing in the agency’s training or policies would justify skipping over houses because of a political sign.
Ms. Criswell said the Florida incident came to light through a complaint by a Transportation Security Administration employee who’d been assigned to work on Ms. Washington’s team.
And while excoriating Ms. Washington, Ms. Criswell did say there has been an issue with disinformation, which she said fostered “a difficult security environment.”
“We help all survivors, all people, obtain all assistance they are qualified for under the law and misinformation was making that work much more difficult,” she said.
She said hurricanes Helene and Milton spawned more disinformation than any previous disaster she’s seen.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.