Bombshell Report Discovers FEMA Directive to Skip Over Hurricane-Damaged Houses with Trump Signs

Two of the deadliest hurricanes of the year – Helene and Milton – hit the southeastern United States in quick succession in September. Both were politicized amid the contentious election season to the point where President Joe Biden came to the defense of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after Vice President Kamala Harris accused him of not taking her calls.

And now it appears the political games extended to relief effort as well. The Daily Wire was the first to report last week that federal disaster relief workers were ordered to bypass the homes of Donald Trump supporters as they surveyed damage.

The Daily Wire reporting has since been confirmed by other news outlets and the supervisor in question was fired, but it is starting to look like the directive may have been more than just the work of one bad actor. On Tuesday’s show, Megyn broke down what we know so far.

The Reporting

As The Daily Wire reported, Federal Emergency Management Agency Supervisor Marn’i Washington told staffers surveying damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Lake Placid, Florida, to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” Multiple federal employees said Washington communicated the directive verbally and in a group chat used by the team.

The sources told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes that had Trump signs or flags on display were skipped in late October and early November due to the guidance. They meant those houses were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA aid. 

While Washington worked for FEMA, those receiving the directive were part of a Department of Homeland Security surge capacity force team of volunteers. Photos obtained by The Daily Wire from the system used to track what homes were visited showed relief workers followed Washington’s guidance by marking addresses “not able to access property” and then listing explanations such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”

The ‘CYA’

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced on Saturday that Washington was fired, though she claimed the behavior was an isolated incident. “More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors,” Criswell said in a statement. “Recently, one FEMA employee departed from these values to advise her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump.” 

Washington, meanwhile, broke her silence on Monday when she appeared on Roland Martin’s YouTube program and alleged her directive was not “isolated.” Instead, she said she was simply following a widespread FEMA policy of avoiding “politically hostile” homes. “FEMA preaches avoidance first, and then de-escalation,” she argued. “This is not isolated. This is a colossal event of avoidance.”

In Megyn’s view, trying to paint this as a safety issue is nothing more than a “CYA” (i.e. cover your ass). “If you really don’t want FEMA there, you are supposed to paint like a purple X on your house… A Trump sign is not a purple X,” she said. “And just because some Trump supporter says, ‘What are you doing here?’ or ‘I know you guys don’t like Republicans,’ or something less than ‘I love you, FEMA’ doesn’t mean you get to skip that, madam.”

Getting Rid of the Rot

Washington was the disaster survivor assistance crew leader for Highland County, Florida, which includes Lake Placid. Given her claims, Megyn said the question now becomes how far does the corruption go.

“The only question really to be investigated at this point is how high does this go? Because she is saying it went up higher than her and that she is being scapegoated,” she explained. “How much rot needs to be cleaned out at FEMA? Because political messaging from people that they are not huge fans of FEMA is not grounds for skipping their homes and neither are their Trump signs.”

Ultimately, Megyn said the issues with government bureaucracy are not on FEMA alone. “We need to get to the bottom of what is going on here because there will be more natural disasters,” she concluded. “Just because Trump is president-elect doesn’t mean he will instantaneously be able to get to the bottom of the rot that is in so many of these federal agencies, the absolute loathing for him, yes, and for the right half of the country.”

You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 942 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.