The House Homeland Security Committee plans to interview a second FEMA employee about a former supervisor’s instruction for relief workers to skip homes in Florida displaying Trump flags or signs, according to a letter first shared with The Daily Wire.
Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-TN) sent the letter Thursday afternoon to Chad Hershey, the supervisor of former FEMA employee Marn’i Washington, who ordered workers in Lake Placid to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” The request to Hershey comes one day after the committee interviewed Washington, who issued the Trump home guidance both verbally and in a text message.
“The Committee seeks to uncover the complete nature and extent of FEMA’s misconduct in withholding federal assistance from Americans based on political affiliation,” Green wrote. “Your observations and experience as Ms. Washington’s Task Force Lead for the Disaster Survival Assistance Task Force are vital to the Committee’s investigation.”
The letter was also signed by Reps. Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).
Citing reports from The Daily Wire, Green wrote that Hershey should schedule a transcribed interview with the committee by December 9. Green indicated that the committee wanted to ask Hershey about comments she made in interviews after she was fired over the guidance, saying that he had directed her to issue the guidance.
“In an interview following her termination, Ms. Washington claimed that her instructions to FEMA workers were not exceptional, but rather that you, as her direct supervisor, instructed her to avoid homes that had signs bearing support for President-elect Donald J. Trump to avoid ‘community trends of political hostility,’” Green wrote.
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When first contacted by The Daily Wire, Hershey said that he was “aware” of the situation with the Trump guidance, and that it was being looked into.
“We are aware of it and we are taking proper action in this situation currently,” Hershey said last month, adding that “we are taking action at this moment regarding the situation that you’re talking about.”
Whistleblowers told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes were skipped due to the guidance. Those homes have since been visited by relief workers, according to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.
Since the first story broke, other whistleblowers have alleged FEMA misconduct toward Trump supporters in Georgia and North Carolina.
