Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator DeAnne Criswell stands next to a map of the path of Hurricane Ian during a press conference at FEMA headquarters in Washington, DC, on September 28, 2022.
Kevin Dietch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed Saturday that it had fired an employee who instructed rescue workers in Florida not to visit homes with signs in their yards supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles of helping people regardless of their political affiliation.” FEMA Administrator Dean Criswell wrote in a statement: “This was reprehensible.”
of daily wire It was first reported Friday that a now-fired FEMA supervisor ordered employees to exclude pro-Trump homes from recovery efforts.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Criswell said in a statement.
Criswell added that the matter has been referred to the Office of the Special Counsel for investigation.
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday blamed the Biden administration for the incident, saying he had ordered the Office of Emergency Management to investigate “targeted discrimination against Floridians who support Donald Trump.”
“The blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is another reason the Biden-Harris administration is coming to an end,” DeSantis wrote in his paper. post At X.
The firing came days after Trump won the presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris, but weeks after recovery efforts from Hurricane Milton hit areas along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
At the time of the hurricane, Criswell accused Trump of spreading misinformation about the status of FEMA disaster relief funds.
