Last week, Marn’i Washington, a FEMA supervisor, was fired for telling the people who reported to her that, while canvassing in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton/accompanying disastrous torrential rain catastrophe in Florida, they should bypass homes that had “Trump For President” signs.
Obviously, this was a major scandal.
But Ms. Washington claimed innocence. That she was a patsy; she was being scapegoated. It was not her personal decision, it was an in-place policy from above.
That was either a very clumsy excuse for her behavior, or a very sick, massively illegal, unethical and grossly inhumane reality.
It turns out, she may well be telling the truth.
From Isaac Schorr’s article for the New York Post:
A scandal of potentially titanic proportions is brewing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Last week, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell fired Marn’i Washington, the official accused of discriminating against Donald Trump-supporting hurricane victims in Florida, casting her as a lone wolf, a bad apple in an orchard full of good ones.
Not so fast.
On Tuesday, Washington — and another ex-FEMA employee who spoke with The Post — disputed the relatively rosy picture painted by Criswell.
According to the recently disgraced Washington, “FEMA preaches avoidance” from potentially contentious situations.
And, supposedly, Trump supporters are disproportionately responsible for fomenting such situations.
Washington said her team had encountered “political hostility” from those in homes with “Trump campaign signage,” but nevertheless insisted that agency guidance is — and her own determination was — about safety, not political targeting.
Another former FEMA employee also told The Post that the processes that led to Washington’s discriminatory action are systemic — and that the bias against Trump supporters dated back years, sometimes justified as part of an effort to serve “marginalized” communities first.
You can cite any empirical or philosophical reason that you want to justify this allegedly pervasive practice, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not just negligent or wrong — it’s evil.
To review: if this is to be believed, FEMA policy is to avoid potentially contentious situations, the people in charge decided to define Trump-supporting households as potentially contentious, and therefore left them without any FEMA help after a devastating hurricane/rain event.
Let me ask you a question. Suppose, during a Republican administration, FEMA decided to define homes with Democrat-for-President signs as potentially contentious and leave the residents to fend for themselves after a disaster. What should be done? Who should be held to account?
How fast do you think most mainstream media – the same media that, with the notable exception of Isaac Schorr (who usually writes for the left-leaning mediaite.com, by the way) – are looking the other way at this scandal right now, would be jumping all over it?
Mr. Schorr calls this “a scandal of potentially titanic proportions”. He doesn’t exaggerate.
More on the FEMA scandal as it develops.
