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.
‘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.
