A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee was fired after telling her hurricane survivor assistance team to avoid going to homes that had yard signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
FEMA did not identify the employee or the area in which it happened when announcing the incident on Saturday, but the agency called the act "reprehensible" and said it was a "clear violation" of its "core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.
"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," FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said in the announcement.
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Criswell said he is working to ensure this doesn't happen again with any of FEMA's 22,000 employees. The situation has now been referred to the Office of Special Counsel.
In a post on X, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Division of Emergency Management is investigating the situation and said it was an act of "the federal government's targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump.
"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," the post read. "New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired."
Florida was one of the southeastern states that was hit hard by back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton last month. Clean-up and recovery efforts are still ongoing, with those impacted getting assistance from FEMA.
