Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell stands next to a Hurricane Ian track map during a press conference at FEMA Headquarters on September 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed Saturday that it fired an employee who instructed relief workers in Florida not to visit homes with signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles of helping people regardless of their political affiliation,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell wrote in a statement. “That was reprehensible.”
The Daily Wire first reported Friday that the now-fired FEMA supervisor ordered her staff to exclude Trump-supporting homes from their cleanup efforts.
“I will continue to do everything I can to ensure this never happens again,” Criswell said in the statement.
Criswell added that the matter has been referred to the Office of Special Counsel for investigation.
Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday criticized the Biden administration for the incident and said he had directed the Department of Emergency Management to investigate “targeted discrimination against Floridians who support Donald Trump.”
“The blatant weaponization of the government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is another reason the Biden-Harris administration is in its final days,” DeSantis wrote in a post on X.
The firing comes days after Trump won the presidency against Vice President Kamala Harris, but weeks after recovery efforts began after Hurricane Milton, which devastated neighborhoods along Florida's Gulf Coast.
As the hurricane caused damage, Criswell accused Trump of spreading misinformation about the status of FEMA's disaster relief funding
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