FEMA worker fired for telling hurricane responders to avoid homes ...
A tattered American flag flaps outside a home after Hurricane Helene and before the arrival of Hurricane Milton, on Anna Maria Island, Fla., last month. Rebecca Blackwell/AP hide caption
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Rebecca Blackwell/AP
A Federal Emergency Management Agency worker has been fired after she told a team responding to hurricane survivors to not go to homes with yard signs showing support for President-elect Donald Trump, the agency said.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the employee’s action “reprehensible,” and said the matter had been referred to the Office of Special Counsel.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values & principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” Criswell said in a statement on Saturday.
The agency did not identify the employee or say when or where their actions happened.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it happened in Florida. The Republican governor on Saturday reshared a post from The Daily Wire, a conservative news and opinion website that first reported the news of the firing on Friday, before FEMA issued its statement.
DeSantis said the federal worker’s behavior was "targeted discrimination" of Florida residents who support Trump and that he’s directed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to investigate the matter.
"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," DeSantis said.
FEMA workers have been in the state helping residents recover from Hurricane Milton last month and, before that, Hurricane Helene.
The news comes a month after the agency beat back falsehoods about its disaster response funding. Criswell also told NPR last month that "disaster response is non-political. It is all about the people."
“We take our mission to help everyone before, during and after disasters seriously. I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again,” Criswell said in Saturday’s statement.
