Whistleblower: FEMA discriminated against Trump supporters



In an absolutely insane reveal, a whistleblower has revealed that FEMA discriminated against Americans based on their political support under the Biden administration.

Former hurricane relief supervisor Marn’i Washington admitted to ordering workers to skip homes displaying Trump signs after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, claiming it was part of FEMA’s “avoidance” policy.

Government employees reported that at least 20 homes featuring Trump signs or flags were bypassed from the end of October into November as the temperatures dropped, due to “best practices” guidance.

Now, other FEMA employees claim her admission was an “isolated incident.”


However, the former FEMA employee alleged that the orders came from her superiors and this was not an isolated incident at all. Rather, Washington explained that “this was the culture.”

“They were already avoiding these homes based on community trends from hostile political encounters. It has nothing to do with the campaign sign. It just so happened to be part of the community trend," Washington said.

But it gets worse.

Keith Malinak of “Pat Gray Unleashed” spoke with X account user @EmergencyRV, who posted video footage of hundreds of trailers owned by FEMA that could be housing those displaced by the hurricane — and are instead sitting in a large lot, unused.

“They’re just sitting there, rotting. And people chimed in on the comments and said, ‘Yup, I’ve seen trailers like this, and such and such, where grass is growing all over them.’ It’s insane,” Malinak tells Pat Gray and Jeffy.

“You could house every out-of-their-home, every homeless person who got wiped out in these catastrophes, right now,” Gray says, disturbed.

“That’s your tax dollars at work, right there,” Malinak adds.

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FEMA and NC National Guard abandon North Carolinians living in TENTS as winter looms



Hurricane Helene had devastating effects on Western North Carolina. Many residents are still displaced. Some of them are even living in tents right now.

Why then has FEMA and the North Carolina National Guard ceased operations in areas most impacted by Helene?

Mercury One executive director JP Decker joins Jill Savage on “Blaze News Tonight” to share what the nonprofit is doing to fill the gap in the government’s absence.

“The devastation is still there. Nothing has really changed in regards to some of those buildings in Asheville or Black Mountain,” says Decker, adding that there’s still “20- to 30-feet tall piles of debris.”

By the looks of the North Carolina National Guard’s social media pages, however, it would seem that they’re working tirelessly to help the victims.

But when Decker was on the grounds with Mercury One, “There was no FEMA, there was no National Guard.”

In addition to other nonprofits, he says, “It was the everyday person who was standing in the gap and doing what the government should have been doing.”

Making matters worse is the fact that the city of Asheville, North Carolina, recently installed a single-unit public bathroom that cost a pretty $400,000.

“This shows how important local government elections are when you have people who are willing to do something like this when there's people that are suffering and living in tents,” says Decker.

Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson points to a recent article written by Blaze News investigative journalists Steve Baker and Joseph Hanneman, in which they report the same story.

“The Army, Air Force, and National Guard have pulled most personnel from Western North Carolina. The temporary shelter need is 'extremely urgent' as winter looms,” they wrote.

Baker, who spent time in North Carolina helping with relief efforts, has a difficult time speaking about the tragic abandonment of the North Carolinians.

“We made relationships with these [government employees] and became very friendly with them. We were seeing each other every day; we were going out to the disaster relief site ... going out with their dog teams, going out with their people, helping recover bodies and also help removing debris and clearing people's property,” he says. “And then to see these forces removed ... I get very emotional about this.”

“Last week ... I drove over a 100 miles through the most devastated areas in the western part of the state and mile after mile after mile, tent after tent after tent, where people won't leave their property because they're afraid they're going to lose it if they leave,” he recounts. “And not one military vehicle, not one troop on the ground.”

Shocked at what he was seeing, Baker said he called the public affairs offices to inquire about the egregious abandonment.

He was met with responses, such as, “You’re right, Mr. Baker. We withdrew.”

But when Baker asked the obvious follow up question — Why? — he was met with silence.

“There is no answer because there is no logical answer,” he tells the panel.

To hear more of the story, watch the clip above.

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‘This is gaslighting, this is propaganda’: How Hurricane Helene victims have been ABANDONED by the government



While the news cycle has shifted its focus to the president-elect and other timely issues, the people of North Carolina are still suffering in silence after Hurricane Helene ravaged the place they call home — with government assistance almost nowhere to be found.

Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker was on the ground in North Carolina following the deadly storm — and what he saw is something he can’t soon forget.

“You see the devastation, and you see houses up in trees, 30 feet above the current water level, that are still there, and it all of a sudden dawned on me, multi-hour, winding, 150-mile journey to Tennessee through the back roads, is I didn’t see a single military transport at all, of any kind,” Baker tells Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Not one troop on the ground of any kind, either active duty or National Guard,” he adds, noting that as soon as he got back to Dallas, Texas, he began asking some serious questions.


“The first thing that I discovered was that in fact, the National Guard had been withdrawn on the 19th of this month,” Baker explains, adding, “So, as I’m starting to dig through this, I go to the X account of the North Carolina National Guard.”

According to Baker, the pinned post on the Guard's X account said, “This is a no fail mission. We are there for you until it’s over.”

“No, they’re not,” Baker comments. “So we’re working on this story for the last several days, and then just yesterday, all of the sudden, whoever their social media person is is populating the X page with all these new posts showing photos of all the work that they’re currently doing, except that some of those photos have green leaves on the trees still in the background.”

“This is gaslighting, this is propaganda, and so we’re asking the questions,” he adds.

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No more military help for storm-ravaged North Carolina amid reports of people living in tents



The National Guard and the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps have pulled all service members out of storm-ravaged Western North Carolina at a time when advocates for Hurricane Helene victims say some residents are living in tents while hundreds await word on temporary housing.

Joint Task Force North Carolina — a blend of National Guard and active-duty Army and Air Force troops — had 4,000 members working in North Carolina as of Oct. 29, but two sources told Blaze News there are no service members working on storm relief in the region. The National Guard pulled out within the past week.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is finalizing work on a water treatment system near Asheville. The Corps of Engineers is working to remove storm debris to a site near Asheville. An effort to document the high-water marks in North Carolina will continue for “a few more weeks,” the Corps reported Nov. 22.

'Your job is not done. There are people still sleeping in tents and in desperate need of help.'

Major Aimee Valles, a public affairs officer with the XVIII Airborne Corps, told Blaze News that all Airborne Corps personnel were removed “a little more than a month ago.” Army and Air Force units from XVIII Airborne Corps had 1,500 personnel assigned to Western North Carolina in October.

Blaze News contacted the North Carolina National Guard for more details on the pullout but was referred to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, which did not reply to a request for information. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s office also did not return a message from Blaze News seeking comment.

The commander of Joint Task Force North Carolina, Brig. Gen. Wes Morrison, penned a thank-you letter to the troops Nov. 21 that was posted to X on Nov. 25.

“This Joint Task Force rescued over 865 people, delivered over 22,000 tons of relief supplies, cleared over 1,600 obstacles while repairing an untold number of roadways, bridges, and culverts,” Morrison wrote. “Over 6,200 National Guardsmen from North Carolina and 15 other states, along with active-duty soldiers, have served in 17 affected counties.”

The withdrawal comes amid complaints that some residents who had been put up in hotels by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are now living in tents because their hotel vouchers expired.

“That’s not the only reason so many are choosing to live in tents,” a National Guard official told Blaze News. “They are afraid to abandon their properties [for fear] their land is going to be taken from them. True or not, that is what they’re afraid of.”

Woody Faircloth, founder of the Colorado-based charity EmergencyRV, has provided 35 free recreational vehicles to Western North Carolina residents since Helene struck in late September. The need will spiral as the weather turns colder, he said. Another 10-11 RVs will be delivered Thanksgiving week.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Faircloth told Blaze News Nov. 25 as he drove a donated RV through Tennessee toward Western North Carolina. “There’s a cold front coming in. That is going to be a problem for everybody there. Even ones in RVs. We’re going to have to make sure they get some insulation underneath them.

FEMA direct temporary housing units are set up for occupancy on a commercial lot in Old Fort, N.C., on Nov. 16.FEMA Photo by Greg Curtis

“People are staying in hotels that got denied by FEMA, and they’re going to run out of money,” Faircloth said. “When you live in a hotel, you’re going out to eat every night because you can’t make a meal. These RVs kind of solve that, but we won’t be able to help everybody up there. We wish we could. The need is increasing, not decreasing.”

According to AccuWeather, overnight temperatures in Swannanoa will drop to 26 degrees on Nov. 29 and to 18 degrees on Dec. 1.

One family EmergencyRV helped was originally provided with a donated tiny home, but Faircloth said FEMA “red-tagged” it as uninhabitable because it didn’t meet FEMA requirements.

“They gave the family a hotel voucher for three days, and the family doesn’t have anywhere to go after three days,” Faircloth said. “So they were planning to come back and pitch a tent there, but we diverted an RV that’s going to them and they’ll have that when they go back in.

'God and Santa Claus are going to be so proud of us.'

“I mean, this is how it works,” he said. “It’s like people helping people. Nobody else is going to help.”

Faircloth said EmergencyRV still has 300 requests for housing assistance. There are some 1,900 FEMA hotel vouchers that will expire “at some point” and greatly increase the need, he said.

Faircloth will be in Western North Carolina all week. He made the trip in a donated RV with his daughter Luna, who was one of the inspirations for establishing the charity. EmergencyRV began delivering homes to those displaced by the massive wildfires that struck Paradise, California, in November 2018.

Faircloth saw a fire survivor on television expressing thanks for having a place to stay for Thanksgiving, pointing to a nearby RV.

“I looked over at my daughter, who was 6 at the time, and I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we get one of those and we’ll drive it to California and we’ll give it to a family so they have a place to call home for Thanksgiving?’ She just got the biggest smile on her face. She said, ‘Dad — God and Santa Claus are going to be so proud of us.’”

— (@)

Faircloth said EmergencyRV needs new or used RVs in good working condition. The charity will transport them from anywhere in the country. The group also needs financial support for things like new tires, fuel, and furnishings for the homes.

Nearly a month ago, a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Army told Blaze News the Hurricane Helene response coming from the Biden-Harris White House was “pathetic” and tainted by partisan politics. Casey Wardynski, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and Reserve affairs under former President Donald J. Trump, said the Pentagon offered much higher levels of support for wildfires and other hurricanes.

The National Guard source — who has extensive experience working on the ground in Western North Carolina but is not authorized to speak for the Guard — said the Western North Carolina counties did not want Guard help for anything but food and water distribution.

“We were glorified spigot turners,” the source said. “The counties made a decision to use those limited funds to hire locals who have been displaced from their jobs. So they sent us home. We were never deployed in the manner we should have been. Our actual capabilities were never employed.”

The source said federal and local officials need to suspend regulations in this emergency so that no one is left out in the cold. He confirmed reports that dozens of tiny homes built by Amish carpenters and other volunteers won't be used due to building codes or other regulations.

'They are no longer here. I’m in complete disbelief.'

“These counties must issue a moratorium on those regulations. These people need immediate dry and warm housing. We can worry about codes and regulations later.”

Local residents who took to social media expressed feelings of abandonment and questioned the Joint Task Force’s frequently posted social media statement, “This mission is no fail, and we’ll continue to work around the clock until it’s complete.”

Some vented anger at Gen. Morrison on X.

Glenna Ryan posted, “Wow. What a disgrace Americans still suffering in tents, cars.” An account under the handle Deplorable Nicholas added: “What exactly are you celebrating? Your job is not done. There are people still sleeping in tents and in desperate need of help. Shame on you and the governor for even considering this.”

Matt Van Swol, an Asheville photographer who has shared the plight of locals on X throughout the fall, said hundreds of people are waiting for temporary shelter across the region, but only a handful of trailer homes have been delivered by FEMA.

— (@)

“We talked to someone yesterday who said FEMA told them it would take ‘3 months’ to get their home,” Van Swol posted on X Nov. 22. “This incompetence is causing real-world harm to people.”

On Nov. 15 and 16, FEMA published photos showing manufactured homes and camper/trailers sitting unused in a staging area in Hickory, N.C. The agency was setting up a small community of the temporary homes for occupancy in Old Fort, N.C.

Blaze News reached out to FEMA for comment but did not get a reply by press time.

Van Swol was critical of the North Carolina National Guard for posting weeks-old photos on X because it creates the impression that Guardsmen are still at work helping people.

“The NC National Guard is literally posting pure propaganda videos on X, pretending they are still in WNC helping us,” Van Swol posted Nov. 25. “They are no longer here. I’m in complete disbelief.”

Van Swol posted drone video he and his wife took that shows tents being used for shelter in Swannanoa.

A 5th wheel RV from EmergencyRV is delivered to a displaced resident of Fletcher, N.C., in October. EmergencyRV provides free RVs to people who have lost their homes to natural disasters. Close to a dozen RVs will be delivered to Western North Carolina Thanksgiving week.Photo courtesy of Woody Faircloth. Used with permission.

Van Swol’s wife, Erin Derham, a documentary filmmaker, said they tried in vain to get mainstream media outlets to cover the ongoing tragedy from Helene damage. Fox News sent a crew last week, but otherwise coverage has been threadbare, she said.

“The community effort on the ground is stronger than any movie I’ve ever seen,” Derham told Blaze News. “People set aside political beliefs and any prejudices they had in the past and just helped each other. The same cannot be said for the response coming from the outside, particularly from government organizations and the media.”

Derham called and emailed media contacts she had through her filmmaking business, but no one wanted to cover the story, she said.

“Media outlets of all political affiliations have been reached out to by myself,” Derham said. “Some of which I had direct contacts with, including CNN. I got nothing. Zero response. Zero. ‘We can’t help with this right now but hope you’re OK.’

“Nothing. That is insane to me,” she said. “We have been harassed online for going on conservative news outlets, but those are the only outlets covering this story.”

The couple also posted recent video showing the massive amount work to be done to clean up unprecedented storm debris.

“Shockingly little progress has been made in the clean up efforts across the rural mountain areas of WNC,” Van Swol posted on X. “It’s hard to overstate the sheer volume of debris that exists in every town, everywhere across Appalachia. At the current pace it’ll take decades, not years.”

Readers on X were critical of a flurry of National Guard posts published since Nov. 21 that showcased work that was done weeks ago.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor removes debris from Lake Lure, N.C., on Nov. 15, 2024.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Photo by Patrick Moes

“Why are you showing old photos when you have pulled out?” one reader commented. Another wrote: “Do you still have any troops deployed? It’s being widely reported that all troops have RTB [returned to base] and that these pics are weeks old? You aren’t trying to gaslight light us now are you?”

One National Guard post on X from Nov. 24 showed cleanup efforts under way in Marshall, N.C. The photos in the post were taken Oct. 28, according to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, which manages photos and videos for the military and federal agencies.

“Shame on you. Delete this post,” wrote reader Jill Shank. “Remember what you saw? Those people are suffering a bitter winter abandoned by their government.”

Another Nov. 24 National Guard post on X showed soldiers assisting in warehouse operations in Waynesville, N.C. The photos were taken Oct. 27 by Staff Sgt. David Hunt of the 382nd Public Affairs Detachment, according to DVIDS.

Faircloth said of the more than 100 families he has spoken to in the region since Hurricane Helene, none had flood insurance. They lost everything in the storm. He said this makes the donated RVs even more important.

“This is why we only deliver nice RVs. Some of these families will live in these things for the rest of their life,” he said. “That's just the cold, hard facts about it.

“But it’s incredible work,” Faircloth said of his charity. “God is definitely driving the RVs, if you know what I’m saying.”

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Army Green Beret veteran EXPOSES the reality of FEMA's hurricane response



Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) put FEMA on the spot during a congressional hearing, revealing that the government organization meant to help disaster victims is prioritizing illegal aliens over survivors of Hurricane Helene.

“In North Carolina, for example, where I visited, you could have a flood or disaster victim that can get a check for $750, yet when I go through and I look at the programs and resources that are available to a citizen of a different country that came illegally into the United States under the FEMA administrative program, using nonprofits, you could be eligible for housing, for food, for transportation, for health care costs, and others,” Graves said at the hearing.

“I was able to get to a figure in excess of $10,000 for an individual, let me make note again, that is a citizen of a foreign country. How would I explain to a taxpayer, that a taxpayer, a citizen of the United States, is eligible for $750, yet a citizen of a foreign country under your agency is still eligible for assistance of $10,000?” he asked.


Former Army Green Beret and Savage Freedoms Relief Operations founder Adam Smith, who spent 17 years conducting global military operations in defense of the United States, is infuriated but not surprised.

“It would be a lie if I was surprised,” Smith tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.” “Watching it real time, firsthand on the ground, we’re having conversations with individuals who are regularly denied applying for assistance.”

“They apply for assistance, and it’s denied to them, and it’s a multitude of different types of assistance. Everything from a $750 check, which is immediate response assistance, to having FEMA support for grant money, coming in to help cover down on damage to the homes,” he explains.

“There’s a lot of people that are having conversations about just leaving because of the amount of challenge that they’re facing with regards to trying to get FEMA assistance on the ground,” he adds.

And it’s more complicated than just receiving help, as victims are also waiting on FEMA to decide whether or not their property has been rezoned as a flood zone.

“There’s a lot of inefficient effort that’s taking place, and it’s costing the American taxpayers a lot of dollars,” Smith says. “And add it to the next problem, which is the second disaster that we’re going to face, which is an economic disaster in the region.”

“We’ve already had the tragedy of the loss of life, and we’ve had the tragedy of loss of homes and homesteads. Now, we’re going to have the tragedy of loss of economic stability in the region because capital’s not getting reinjected back into the local businesses,” he adds.

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Bible opened to book of Revelation found in devastated NC brings hope to Marine vet's family in Hurricane Helene aftermath



The family of a Marine veteran made a miraculous discovery of a Bible stuck on a fence post in an area of North Carolina absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene. The Bible was opened to the book of Revelation — a divine sign, according to the family.

Hurricane Helene ravaged Western North Carolina with catastrophic rainfall in late September. One of the areas that was devastated by Hurricane Helene was the town of Old Fort, roughly 25 miles east of Asheville, North Carolina.

'So if that’s not a message, somebody needs to wake up.'

Marine veteran Scotty Swann had his home flooded by the high waters. The water was so high that Swann was forced to retreat to the roof of his house and had to be rescued by a raft.

Once the floodwaters receded, Swann's family began working to restore the flooded property and discovered a Bible pinned to a fence post. In an eye-opening coincidence, the Bible was opened to the book of Revelation. The Bible has become a symbol of faith and hope for the community.

A TikTok post with the caption "God is everywhere," shows a close-up photo of the Bible that miraculously survived Hurricane Helene.

The family of Swann saw the Bible as a powerful reminder of resilience and encapsulated it in a protective case.

Another TikTok video shows the wondrous Bible being encased.

According to Fox Weather, the brother of Swann shared a video of the Bible.

"This Bible was stuck on this fence post, open to Revelations," the unnamed brother said. "Of all the things destroyed, that was left open, and it’s sitting there, and we’re not touching it."

"So if that’s not a message, somebody needs to wake up," he noted.

The brother revealed that a man from South Carolina constructed and donated a cross made out of cedar to stand next to the miraculous Bible.

The woodworker, Joey Brown, put a plaque on the cross that read: "Donated to victims of Hurricane Helene."

Brown told Swann that he donated the cross to "spread the word of God and tell people that they're not alone in this hurricane and in this challenge."

Swann's brother said, "So this is just amazing on how people have responded."

Hurricane Helene unleashed approximately 30 inches of rain — or nearly four months’ worth of rain — in just three days on Western North Carolina in late September.

According to data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there are 103 verified storm-related fatalities in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene as of Nov. 21.

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New FEMA whistleblower backs allegations of political discrimination against Trump supporters: Rep. Comer



House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) announced on Tuesday that another whistleblower has come forward to accuse the Federal Emergency Management Agency of political discrimination.

The new development followed a House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing where Congress members grilled FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about a now-terminated hurricane relief supervisor who admitted to ordering workers to avoid homes with signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, then-supervisor Marn'i Washington gave the directive to her team while administering aid in Lake Placid, Florida. She claimed the instruction was in accordance with FEMA's "avoidance" and "de-escalation" tactics to avoid "politically hostile" homes.

"This is not isolated," Washington stated, adding that the avoidance doctrine was also deployed outside Florida.

During Tuesday's congressional hearing, Criswell rejected Washington's claims, insisting that the incident was isolated to the single rogue employee. She noted that an ongoing internal investigation had not found any evidence of a culture of political discrimination.

"I do not believe that this employee's actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA. FEMA, however, has taken appropriate action to ensure that this matter is fully investigated, and I am committed to ensuring that nothing like this ever happens again," Criswell told the committee.

"We are working with the inspector general to determine whether or not this is broader than this, but the evidence that I have seen so far shows that this was an isolated incident, and it has not gone beyond what this one employee did," she stated.

However, after the hearing, Comer revealed that a second whistleblower had stepped forward with similar accusations.

Comer shared the development in a post on X, writing, "My staff just made contact with a new whistleblower who provided a credible account that a FEMA contractor visited the home of an elderly disabled veteran's family around October 10."

"While there, he recommended that the family remove Trump campaign materials and signs from their house and yard, stating that his FEMA supervisors view Trump supporters as domestic terrorists," Comer continued. "The elderly homeowners were so frightened by this and afraid that they would not recover their loss that they removed the signs. Nevertheless, FEMA has not returned to their residence."

He noted that the alleged incident took place in Georgia, not Florida.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Post.

— (@)

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‘Sounds Like Peter Strzok’: Jordan Grills FEMA Director Over Text Message Telling Workers To Avoid Trump Supporters

'reinforces that mindset'