OPINION:
The federal workforce includes hundreds of thousands of dedicated and efficient workers who do their jobs and don’t let their personal views affect their performance. Unfortunately, however, that same workforce includes petty bureaucrats, incompetents, partisans and slackards who have given federal workers a bad name and reduced public faith in government service.
All of these should be rooted out and sent packing, as any other employer can attest, even though doing so is difficult and loathsome. That seems to fall within the purview of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new Department of Government Efficiency.
Sometimes, those discovered breaking the rules or misusing the power of their position aren’t acting on their own but at the behest of their superiors. Directed misconduct is when superiors order their subordinates to break the rules or the law, which is far more dangerous than individual action. Those giving such orders are more guilty than those caught doing their bidding. They should be hunted down, fired and prosecuted.
That would include the supervisor at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the widely publicized case who directed FEMA field workers after Hurricane Milton to skip offering help to homeowners with Trump lawn signs.
When the story surfaced, the mainstream media labeled it a lie or misinformation concocted and spread by MAGA types to stir up anti-Biden-Harris sentiment before the election. Reporters covering the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, where early reports indicated it happened, couldn’t verify the story, and it looked like maybe the doubters were right.
But reporters were looking in the wrong state. It happened not in North Carolina but in Florida. RealClearInvestigations dispatched two reporters who unearthed solid evidence that in the wake of Milton, FEMA supervisor Marni Washington directed FEMA workers sent to Highland County, Florida, to help homeowners in need of assistance skip at least 20 houses with Trump lawn signs.
What happened may have been far more serious than first reported. It was initially assumed that Ms. Washington had gone rogue in a contentious, close and expensive election cycle, using her authority to turn her team into a little anti-Trump army.
FEMA fired Ms. Washington and apologized for what most accepted as an isolated act. Then, the story got more complicated. In an interview with a Washington Examiner reporter after she’d been fired, Ms. Washington blew the whistle. She said she was not acting on her own but following orders and was being thrown under the bus to protect those who had given the orders.
If what she says is true, the case is an extreme example of the Biden-Harris administration’s all-too-successful effort to turn the government against its political enemies.
As RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevans said, “To have the government deciding who does and does not get disaster aid based on their political affiliations, or whether they have Trump signs in their yards, is just the absolute antithesis of this country.”
The higher-ups at FEMA thought the story would go away if they could blame the incident on the rogue actions of a single employee. When a lazy or ill-tempered letter carrier dumps mail instead of delivering it, no one blames the Postal Service or suspects that the carrier was directed to act criminally or irresponsibly.
Some years ago, when IRS employees in an office in New York were caught accessing the returns of prominent taxpayers for their own amusement, no one thought doing so was authorized or encouraged by their superiors.
If any misuse of government power in the recent presidential campaign needs investigating, it is this one. Firing Ms. Washington was a good first step, but if the evidence confirms that Ms. Washington was acting on orders and that others suffering because of the hurricanes may have also been denied help by similar directives, more drastic action should be demanded by the new administration, Congress and an outraged public.
In a sense, what happened at FEMA is understandable given the attitude of the Biden White House and the elitist progressives who have spent years demonizing, denigrating and dismissing those with whom they disagree as “deplorables” or “garbage.” In their minds, anyone who displayed a Trump sign in their yard probably doesn’t deserve the help of their government anyway. Ms. Washington and those she was directing were perhaps following orders consistent with what they’ve been told for the last few years.
This is another case where the cover-up gets more people into trouble than the initial crime. The investigations promised by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, will hopefully unmask those responsible for the initial orders and the cover-up.
If the evidence supports Ms. Washington’s charges, heads should roll. President-elect Donald Trump’s new head of FEMA should see that they do. Those responsible should not just be reprimanded or fired but prosecuted.
• David Keene is editor-at-large at The Washington Times.
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