A FEMA supervisor directly told workers, both in text and through a group chat on a government site that it would be “best practice” to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
In October, in the wake of the horrific impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, now-President-elect Donald Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration and disaster relief agency FEMA of "neglecting" areas that were primarily comprised of GOP voters. The New York Times said these were "false claims," but a recent expose from The Daily Wire shows that Trump was accurate. The Times has not apologized, corrected, or redacted their story.
"Trump’s False Claims About the Federal Response to Hurricane Helene," read the headline of a New York Times "fact check" on October 4. It claimed that "After Hurricane Helene battered several Southeastern states last week, former President Donald J. Trump wasted no time in criticizing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the federal government’s response — often making false accusations."
The Times took issue with a Truth Social post from Trump, which read "I’ll be there shortly, but 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. MAGA!"
The Times balked. "This lacks evidence," they said in bold. They cited Republican governors of hard-hit states who had "all thanked the federal government and described the federal response as fast." They sourced FEMA, saying that the agency "has deployed more than 1,000 personnel across the affected areas to deliver more than 1.9 million meals, over one million liters of water, 30 generators and more than 95,000 tarps."
Yet in Florida, in the Lake Placid area, FEMA workers were avoiding homes of Trump supporters, at least 20 homes, per The Daily Wire, were marked as "inaccessible, Trump sign," or simply were listed as "Trump sign." A FEMA supervisor directly told workers, both in text and through a group chat on a government site that it would be "best practice" to "avoid homes advertising Trump." When logging their work, government relief staff wrote "Trump sign no entry per leadership" on skipped houses. Other homes were noted as "Trump sign," and "per leadership no stop Trump flag."
FEMA has responded to the claims from Daily Wire, confirming their veracity. The agency said that they have "removed" the person from their post. "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 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," FEMA said.
FEMA director Deanne Criswell said "This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation," and called the behavior of that supervisor "reprehensible." The Times reported on the firing of the supervisor, and said that the agency was attempting to right the wrong by reaching out to those who were skipped because of their political leanings.
"I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA, and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct," Criswell said. The Times covered the firing, but the fact check is still up, without correction or amendment.
The New York Times' report was written by "a reporter who specializes in fact-checking statements made by politicians and public figures." Lina Qiu has been doing this kind of work for over 10 years. The Daily Wire was founded in 2015.
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