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U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin is being excoriated on social media for somewhat defending a FEMA official’s decision to not help Trump supporters.

During a Tuesday House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing pertaining to FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, Raskin rushed to defend the former FEMA official who’s under fire for having told her recovery team to avoid the homes of Trump supporters.

“We could be here today celebrating the workforce of 22,000 FEMA workers, but instead we’re invited to focus on one so-called intermittent employee in Florida whose team encountered what she called political hostility while canvassing door to door for FEMA in Florida,” he began.

“Thereupon, as I understand it, she made the judgment that her workers were unsafe and she issued the order to her team not to go to any more houses in the neighborhood where there were Trump signs planted in the yard,” he added.

Listen:

Many felt he made it sound as if the official had been justified in discriminating against Trump supporters.

In fairness to Raskin, he continued his statement by finally admitting that what she’d done was wrong.

“This was a bad mistake legally and constitutionally, which violated the core mission of FEMA and every federal agency to work on behalf of all Americans,” he said. “It’s plainly wrong and divisive to use a presidential campaign lawn sign as a proxy for someone’s dangerousness.”

Then Raskin praised FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell for speaking openly on what’d happened AFTER the agency had been busted by a whistleblower.

“The director of FEMA who’s with us today, Ms. Criswell, properly acted immediately, within 36 hours of learning of the incident, because this action was an egregious departure from the norms of nonpartisanship, which must govern the conduct in the work of the federal workforce,” he said.

He also defended FEMA by claiming that its swift response AFTER being busted proves it’s on the up and up.

“Federal workers have a duty to serve all Americans, regardless of their political identification. FEMA’s prompt and unequivocal personnel action in this case is powerful evidence that the civil service system is working not only to deliver quality public service, but also to correct employee errors and ensure that the people whose homes were shipped, as in this case, receive outreach and assistance,” he said.

Critics disagreed.

Look (*Language warning):

The since-fired FEMA official, Mari Washington, who perpetrated the discrimination has for her part claimed that she was ordered by higher-ups to do what she did.

But she hasn’t done herself any favors by likening the fear of Trump supporters whom her team had discriminated against to fears of “vicious dogs.”

“I know the highlight here is the Trump campaign signage, but if someone is in another like an urban community and it’s a different culture and someone feels uncomfortable, we can’t go to that home,” she said earlier this month on Fox News.

“If you have loose dogs, and someone on the team was comfortable with dogs and another person is not, we can’t go to that home because of safety precautions,” she added.

Fox News host Trace Gallagher then attempted to clarify by asking, “So the people in FEMA were fearing the Trump houses like they were fearing people with vicious dogs in their backyard?”

“Exactly,* Washington responded.

Vivek Saxena
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