FEMA worker fired after advising hurricane relief team not to visit Florida homes with Donald Trump signs

A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee was fired after advising a survivor support team not to visit homes with signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump during Hurricane Milton relief efforts in Florida last month.

In a statement Saturday, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the incident “reprehensible.”

“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values ​​and principles of helping people regardless of their political affiliation,” she said in the statement shared with NBC News.

Criswell said FEMA’s more than 22,000 employees are committed to helping those affected by disasters.

“I want to make it clear to all of my employees and the American people that this type of behavior and actions will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable when they violate these standards of conduct,” Criswell said, adding that the employee The officer in question was fired and the incident was referred to the Office of Special Counsel.

FEMA has not identified the employee.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he has directed the state’s Division of Emergency Management to open an investigation into the federal government’s “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 on X.

Florida was hit hard by back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton weeks ago. The hurricanes claimed over 200 lives, including in North Carolina and Georgia, and destroyed numerous buildings.