FEMA director confirms agency employees avoided helping 20 Trump supporters' homes during Hurricane Milton

FEMA director Deanne Criswell admitted to Congress that agency employees avoided helping 20 homes of supporters of President-elect Donald Trump during Hurricane Milton, confirming scandal that has generated harsh criticism against the agency.

According to Criswell, federal disaster specialists purposely avoided more than 20 homes in Florida with Trump campaign signs.

During the hearing, the director was approached several times about the scandal and forced to explain that she had decided to fire the part-time supervisor who issued the directive not to support Trump supporters to her 11-member team.

According to Criswell, the agency has already deployed a special team to visit the 20 snubbed owners and offer assistance.

Notably, the director said the case appears to be isolated, but she would ask her agency's inspector general to determine whether the corruption goes beyond the Florida supervisor.

"I do not believe there is a widespread cultural problem," she said in testimony before two House committees.

Criswell's testimony, however, has not convinced some Republican representatives who argued with the FEMA director.

For example, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna cited fired former FEMA supervisor Marnie Washington, who publicly claimed she was following the directives of the agency's top brass and did not intend to discriminate against Trump-sympathetic citizens but to "protect" staff.

"My last question for you is in regards to community trends, Marnie Washington had alleged that that was what was put into a system that would mitigate these interactions if they felt that it was dangerous. And these communities, a lot of them were conservative and Trump supporters, that they felt that FEMA had created an environment that had stated that those people made them feel uncomfortable and that was the reasoning for them passing over these homes. What can you tell me about community trends in regards to this allegation that you made?" Luna asked.

Criswell, who began to ramble in response, was again addressed by the Republican representative.

"If I can just interrupt you real quick, how many people have been impacted by avoidance and de-escalation? Do you have a number for that just nationally or is there a way a database for that?"

"I can tell you that for this particular incident at the direction of our employee, 20 homes were skipped," the FEMA director responded.

The hearing came as the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spiraled into criticism as the Biden administration went to Congress to request an additional $100 billion in disaster aid.

Other Republican representatives contradicted the FEMA director, arguing that the issue of jumped-up houses by conservative individuals does deal with a widespread problem within the agency.

"It’s the culture of what’s going on," said Republican Rep. Jefferson Van Drew from New Jersey.