Late Friday, our friends at the Daily Wire uncovered a massive Biden-Harris administration scandal that blew away the liberal media’s claims that FEMA was fully in control of and taking care of communities affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Thanks to Leif Le Mahieu, we learned a FEMA supervisor instructed employees to avoid homes in Florida with Trump signs.

Of course, this wasn’t of any interest to the flagship morning and evening newscasts of CBS (CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News/CBS Weekend News) and NBC (Today and NBC Nightly News). On cable, CNN, Fox News, Newsmax, and NewsNation all numerous mentions throughout the weekend and into Monday.

Le Matieu explained in his ground-breaking story that “a federal disaster relief official ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida, according to internal correspondence obtained by The Daily Wire and confirmed by multiple federal employees.”

He added the supervisor in question, Marn’i Washington, “told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid” and sources said it added up to “at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags...from the end of October and into November[.]”

Washington was fired with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell insisting this “reprehensible” action “departed from [FEMA’s] values” of “helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families[.]”

Mahieu had the receipts, including multiple sources speaking out, pictures of homes skipped, and screenshots from the surveys FEMA workers were filling out of affected homes.

But given this intrepid reporting came from a conservative website, ABC and PBS pretended this scandal suddenly appeared out of thin air or was something Criswell admitted to on her own.

On Saturday, PBS News Weekend (the weekend version of News Hour), anchor John Yang gave it 20 seconds:

The FEMA administrator said today she’s fired a worker for advising her survivor assistance team not to go to homes with signs supporting Donald Trump. This was in the aftermath of September’s Hurricane Helene. In a statement, Administrator Deanne Criswell said the former employee’s actions were “reprehensible” and vowed to take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

ABC broke the “Big Three” network blackout a day later with a one-minute-39-second report on World News Tonight. Anchor Linsey Davis kept it vague: “FEMA is investigating a former employee for what it calls reprehensible actions. A supervisor was fired after telling her team that was helping hurricane victims not to go to homes with Trump signs.”

 

 

Correspondent Perry Russom kept it vague by claiming it’s unknown which state this official allegedly made this demand and what their name was (click “expand”):

RUSSOM: Tonight, a federal investigation at FEMA, after the agency fired a supervisor for what's being called “a clear violation of FEMA's core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell says the unnamed supervisor ran a “Survivor Assistance Team” and told her workers not to go to homes with yard signs supporting President-Elect Donald Trump.

CRISWELL [on 10/09/24]: I think we're going to have a lot of impacts and people that are going to need our help, sir.

RUSSOM: Criswell is not naming the supervisor, nor saying when or where the incident happened, but Governor Ron DeSantis says it was in Florida, calling it “targeted discrimination.” Two major hurricanes hitting Florida this fall, including Hurricane Milton. The category three storm killing at least 16 people in Florida early last month. 

Russom alluded to the blowback FEMA had received during this year’s hurricane season, whining Trump had questioned “FEMA's integrity” and Criswell had to spend time “denying Trump’s claim.”

Ignoring this disconnect, Russom was already out of time, concluding with a tone of Criswell being in charge and nothing about anyone doing anything to investigate whether this was an isolated incident: “Criswell is calling the supervisor's actions reprehensible. She is also not saying whether or not the workers did what they were told to do and skip homes.”

By Monday morning, the overnight CBS show CBS News Mornings had host Michael George deliver a 26-second brief, citing the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The flagship CBS Mornings had an allusion to this Monday, but buried it in the show’s “Eye Opener” (which we at NewsBusters leave out of time counts given its informal role as a highlight reel vs. actual news reporting). Worse yet, they used a single-sentence soundbite from ABC overnight anchor Andrew Dymburt on World News Now.

To see the relevant transcripts from November 9-11, click here (for PBS), here (for ABC), and here (for CBS News Mornings).