The allegation itself is shocking enough. That FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has admitted that it happened, is horrific.

The Daily Wire broke the story on Friday afternoon that a FEMA official, during the assessment of Florida after Hurricane Milton, instructed employees that they were to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” IN WRITING.

A FEMA supervisor told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid, internal messages viewed by The Daily Wire reveal. The supervisor, Marn’i Washington, relayed this message both verbally and in a group chat used by the relief team, multiple government employees told The Daily Wire.

The government employees told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance, meaning they were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. Images shared with The Daily Wire show that houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote in the government system messages such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership.”

It is unclear whether the same guidance was issued elsewhere in the country. The employees were part of a Department of Homeland Security surge capacity force team, meaning they volunteered from other DHS agencies to help an understaffed FEMA as it dealt with a second major hurricane in a span of just a few weeks.

EXCLUSIVE: Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs pic.twitter.com/o73ejUuYUG

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024

The FEMA agents ordered not to help houses with Trump signs were operating in Highlands County, a deep-red area located in south central Florida that backed Trump by 70% on Tuesday. It was hit with tornadoes, torrential wind and rain, and flooding when Milton hit in October.

In the chat, Washington said that it would be “best practice” to “avoid homes advertising Trump,” according to photos of the messages viewed by The Daily Wire. No explanation was given for this guidance, which included other recommendations like telling the workers to “practice de-escalation and preventative measures,” and to “avoid high salt diets and coffee.”

Photos from the system used by federal relief workers to track what homes they visit showed that relief workers followed Washington’s guidance. Several addresses were marked “not able to access property” with listed explanations such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”

As a reminder, this is what Florida looked like after Hurricane Milton cut across the peninsula.

A whistleblower complaint brought this to The Daily Wire’s attention, who pressed FEMA for a response to these allegations. Stunningly, FEMA (the supposedly about-to-go-broke agency) admitted on Friday evening that yes, this had happened. Talk about a Friday night news dump!

A FEMA official instructed others to withhold aid to Trump supporters after a disaster, and FEMA — while confirming and condemning it — didn't think to mention it until it leaked. https://t.co/YOOzr3BPlU

— Sunny (@sunnyright) November 8, 2024

Oh, yes – FEMA didn’t actually FIRE Marn’i Washington. Is anyone surprised?

After publication of this story, a FEMA spokesperson told The Daily Wire it was “deeply disturbed” and “horrified” by the employee’s actions, and that it has “taken extreme actions to correct this situation.”

“While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident.”

In addition to the statement, a FEMA spokesman clarified that Washington is not actively working for the agency, pending an investigation.

The guidance was first issued by Washington verbally on October 22, and again in the group chat on October 27, according to one of the federal employees. The Trump-related instructions were deleted from the chat a few days later, photos of the chat reviewed by The Daily Wire show.

By October 30, Washington had started walking back the instructions about skipping Trump supporters’ homes, one of the federal employees told The Daily Wire. The relief workers said Washington denied that homes were being skipped after a meeting with other FEMA administrators.

The employees say that Washington has not been punished for the guidance, but has been shifted to another county in Florida.

No government agency, or government employee, should be predicating the performance of their job due to the politics of the taxpayers that they have supposedly been deployed to help. Before FEMA actually confirmed that yes, the story was true, the Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee were vowing to investigate to figure out what was going on.

If these reports are true, they represent a gross failure to fulfill FEMA’s mission, and more importantly, to care for fellow Americans.

We will be investigating, and we expect answers.https://t.co/fEAqiLzujW

— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) November 8, 2024

Someone should be fired for this, and not just Marn’i Washington. She may not have had the “authority” to do this, but those working under her clearly thought she did – and they responded by noting that they were following her instructions. FEMA does not get to avoid culpability for this simply by moving Washington to a different area. Why did she think that this was an appropriate thing to say to those going out into the field, much less PUT IN WRITING ON THE GROUP CHAT. Easy – she assumed that no one would care. She thought she could get away with it. And despite FEMA’s “assurances” that this was “an isolated incident,” how many more Marn’i Washingtons are out there, actively discriminating against American taxpayers due to their political beliefs, all across the bureaucracy?

The deep state cannot be drained fast enough.

UPDATE 12 PM PT
This story broke less than 24 hours ago, but FEMA is not enjoying the sunlight. Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he was directing Florida’s Department of Emergency Services to investigate.

“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 posted on X.

“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,” DeSantis added. “New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired.”

Well, FEMA apparently knew that they needed to cut their losses, immediately.

BREAKING: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell just confirmed that supervisor Marn'i Washington has been fired after I reported Friday that she directed relief workers in Florida to skip homes with Trump flags or signs. It has been referred to a special counsel for investigation.

— Leif Le Mahieu (@leif_lemahieu) November 9, 2024

That’s only a first step. Neither DeSantis nor the House Homeland Security Committee should let one firing placate them.

Featured image via Bill Koplitz on Wikimedia Commons from the FEMA Photo Library archives, cropped, public domain