The FEMA boss who was fired after ordering volunteers not to approach homes displaying Trump signs in Florida after Hurricane Milton has insisted her edict ‘was not isolated’ and also happened in North Carolina.
Speaking out for the first time since she was fired, Marn’i Washington accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of ‘lying’ about the scandal, and making her the scapegoat of a wider practice.
Washington was blasted publicly and lost her job after a text chain was leaked that showed her instructing colleagues to ‘avoid’ houses that had Trump signs in their yards.
Washington told DailyMail.com she is seeking an attorney and is ‘at risk’ as a result of the backlash she’s received. ‘I have information that proves FEMA is lying,’ she said.
In a podcast appearance last night, she went further – claiming more FEMA employees are guilty of the same bias, but that she is the only one being hung out to dry.
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‘FEMA preaches avoidance first, and then de-escalation. This is not isolated. This is a colossal event of avoidance,’ Washington said in an interview with YouTube podcaster Roland Martin.
‘Not just in the state of Florida. You will find avoidance in the Carolinas,’ she revealed.
She says she was directly following FEMA protocol when she issued the controversial directive.
FEMA has tried to distance itself from Washington after receiving widespread backlash, revealing she lost her job after her superiors learned of the message.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said ‘this is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.
‘This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel.’
Washington claimed FEMA teams – that were excoriated for their slow and underwhelming response to the hurricanes – experienced hostility on specific streets.
‘If you look at the record there is what you call a community trend… the political hostility that was encountered by my team, they just so happened to have the Trump campaign signage.’
‘If we are noticing on, for example, Mary Street, and we’re greeted with unwelcomed arms or people are coming out with guns blazing screaming at us, then that’s a street we need to avoid altogether.’
Washington said she did not even vote in this election because she was so busy helping clean up efforts and would never have let politics interfere with her work.
Instead, she said the directive was a matter of keeping her team safe.
‘Not all Floridians have been unpleasant but for the most part the ones that are very passionate about their disdain for FEMA… they have no problem expressing it,’ she said.
During the tragedy, Trump was highly critical of FEMA and the government response, claiming: ‘We give foreign countries hundreds of billions of dollars and we’re handing North Carolina $750.’
Ahead of making a stop in hurricane ravaged North Carolina, Trump said: ‘Don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.’
Washington had also instructed her crews to ‘practice de-escalation and preventative measures’ and to ‘not go anywhere alone.’
Her edict prompted workers to avoid at least 20 homes with signage, indicating their support for the President-elect, leaving residents to fend for themselves without any federal aid, whistleblowers alleged.
She warned volunteers to ‘follow the rules’ and to take ‘frequent breaks and drink water.’
Washington was employed as a reservist with FEMA since 2019 and responded to deployment call outs ‘on United Nations lands’ after natural disasters.
Over her years in the job, Washington and her team have also received hostile treatment from Biden/Harris supporters and the same approach of ‘disengaging and withdrawing’ has taken place.
She also worked a full time regular job in property management in California, but was fired as a result of the backlash she’s received.
According to the Daily Wire, the employees who followed Washington’s orders were part of a Department of Homeland Security team that was made up of volunteers from other agencies.
One of the workers said: ‘I thought we could go help and make a difference. When we got there we were told to discriminate against people.
‘It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.’
The person added that it was wrong to discriminate against Trump supporters when they were their ‘most vulnerable.’
They added: ‘I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them. It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.’
Images also obtained by the outlet of the system used to document what homes were visited show notes being left that said: ‘Trump sign, no contact per leadership.’
But the Trump-related remarks were reportedly deleted from the group chat a few days after they were posted.
Criswell said in the wake of the controversy: ‘I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again.’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered a state investigation into Washington’s edict.
‘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,’ the governor said.
‘At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump.
‘New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired.’
Trump resoundingly won Florida’s 30 electoral votes, with the Associated Press calling the race just one hour after polls closed.
