"What I'd like for the American people to know is before I even deployed to Florida, that this was the work culture there," Marn'i Washington told CNN's Laura Coates. "I was on two teams in Florida and the first team, when I arrived, they were implementing avoidance and de-escalation and unfortunately that trend ran with those Trump signs."
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is set to testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon before the House Oversight Committee in what will likely be fiery hearings as lawmakers question her about disaster relief and whether the agency avoided providing aid to Republicans in hard-hit areas.
CNN reported on threats against FEMA workers in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene the month before, including the case of a North Carolina man who was arrested for allegedly threatening harm against FEMA employees in October. Local authorities said the man was armed with a handgun and a rifle when he was arrested.
FEMA temporarily paused aid to several communities in North Carolina, and outreach resumed after about a day, a FEMA spokesperson said at the time.
Washington said her team encountered hostility from some residents in Florida as they went door-to-door.
"Yes, we've had people verbally express to us that our presence was unwelcome and unwanted. Some people had some tact about it and some people were not so nice about it," she said.
Washington said FEMA's guidelines to relief workers in Florida were to remove themselves from hostile situations if they felt threatened or unsafe.
"I did not act on my own volition. Everything we did was out of the focus of safety and making sure our team felt comfortable," Washington told Coates. "I don't create policy. FEMA does. I just implement it in the field."
Asked if her relief team avoided all homes with Trump signs, Washington said, "It was only selected areas where there were teammates that felt uncomfortable, they did not feel safe and they feared for their safety."
"We registered Trump supporters, we've given them service as well, just we avoided the areas that were hostile," she added.
After Washington was fired, Criswell released a statement saying, "This is a clear violation of FEMA's core values & principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible."
"It would be nice if Ms. Criswell would be human and come to terms with the fact that FEMA has not addressed the safety concerns that the crew leads and the specialists experience out in the Field," Washington said. "There are plenty of reports that discuss hostile encounters, is how FEMA describes it, and our method is avoidance. I don't understand why we're hiding that from the American people."
Washington said she has not been asked to appear before lawmakers herself, but that she would be willing to do so.
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