An employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency instructed a disaster relief team to avoid houses displaying signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, the agency’s administrator said Saturday.
The employee, who was not named, was fired from her position, Administrator Deanne Criswell said in a post to social media on Saturday, calling it a violation of FEMA principles, which say workers should help people no matter their political affiliation.
“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.
“This was reprehensible. 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 issue was reported to the Office of Special Counsel.
“I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again,” Criswell said.
The employee’s actions were first reported by the conservative news site Daily Wire. The Daily Wire reported that the employee gave the instruction to workers who were responding to Hurricane Milton in Lake Placid, Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, responding to the news, said on social media that he has instructed the state’s Division of Emergency Management to launch an investigation into “the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump.”
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“New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired,” DeSantis said.
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said it was “contrary to the very purpose of disaster relief” and called for the Inspector General to investigate. Another Republican senator, Josh Hawley from Missouri, called the conduct “illegal” and said anyone involved should be “identified, fired – and if necessary, prosecuted.”
USA TODAY has reached out to FEMA and Trump’s campaign for comment.
