In the wake of Hurricane Milton, a FEMA supervisor named Marn’i Washington found herself at the center of a storm of her own making. Fired recently for instructing her disaster relief team to bypass homes with Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, Washington is now defending her actions as consistent with FEMA’s guidance for dealing with potentially hostile environments. The incident has sparked a heated debate around FEMA's protocols, allegations of political bias, and accountability in disaster relief operations.
The controversy began when the conservative outlet The Daily Wire reported that Washington’s team had been skipping houses displaying Trump signs from late October through early November. According to the report, FEMA workers were logging notes like “Trump sign no entry per leadership” into FEMA’s government system, bypassing these homes altogether.
FEMA’s Administrator on Employee Misconduct, Deanne Criswell, responded swiftly, describing Washington’s guidance as “reprehensible” and a clear violation of FEMA’s values to aid all individuals without discrimination. The agency called it an isolated incident and emphasized that Washington had no authority to issue such guidance. But Washington’s take? She insists that her team’s actions were, in fact, standard practice based on FEMA’s training to avoid homes where workers feel threatened.
During an interview on the Roland Martin Unfiltered podcast, Washington defended her instructions, attributing the policy to safety protocols she says FEMA regularly implements in areas deemed hostile. Washington claimed that her team had faced threats—both verbal and physical—from residents in homes displaying Trump signs, prompting her to follow FEMA’s avoidance and de-escalation policies.
She further stated that this type of “avoidance” was not limited to Florida but was also applied in North Carolina, countering FEMA’s assertion that this was an isolated incident.
“FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation,” Washington said, arguing that her team’s actions were consistent with a longstanding FEMA approach in potentially hostile situations. She challenged FEMA’s leadership, accusing them of downplaying the scale of the “avoidance” practice and urged for a deeper investigation into FEMA’s operational methods in politically charged environments.
Republican Rep. James Comer, Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has taken notice, calling for a congressional hearing on November 19 to review the incident. Washington voiced her support for the investigation, asserting that it would reveal that “this is not isolated” and challenging FEMA to produce incident reports she believes will validate her claims. “They will find this is not isolated,” Washington said. “This is colossal.”
While FEMA remains firm in its stance, forwarding a November 9 statement from Criswell that condemned Washington’s actions, questions persist. FEMA has reiterated that it stands by its nonpartisan mandate, and Criswell emphasized that any conduct deviating from FEMA’s mission to serve impartially “will not be tolerated.”