FEMA boss rejects Kamala’s implication white folks can go to back of line for relief, fact checkers add ‘context’

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell clarified that disaster aid for those affected by Hurricane Ian would not be doled out with preferential treatment given to “communities of color” as media reports claimed Vice President Kamala Harris had suggested.

On Sunday morning’s edition of “Face the Nation” on CBS, Criswell was asked for a response on the remarks by Harris which fact-checkers have reported were missing context.

Harris drew criticism on Friday when it was reported that she seemed to suggest that disaster relief would be “based on equity” while at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum.

Fact-checkers at The Associated Press, Reuters and PolitiFact have said her comment that disaster relief will be directed toward “communities of color” has been taken out of context and misrepresented online.

“Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a DNC event about distributing equitable resources to help with the effects of climate change. She did not say that Hurricane Ian relief will be distributed based on race, as some claimed online,” the AP noted.

“It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making,” Harris had said.

“We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity. Understanding not everyone starts out at the same place, and if we want people to be in an equal place, sometimes we have to take into account those disparities,” she added.

The FEMA boss was asked about Harris’s comments on Sunday.

“Yesterday, Florida’s governor’s spokesperson said that comments are causing undue panic and must be clarified. You’re here. I’d like you to clarify them because Senator Scott called on FEMA to be colorblind, really insinuating you’re not,” host Margaret Brennan said, referring to remarks from Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida who expressed dismay that Harris would suggest that hurricane victims would be treated differently according to their skin color.

“Yeah, look Margaret. I was on the ground. I was on the ground Friday and Saturday. I was assessing the damage personally and talking to survivors,” Criswell said. ” There are a lot of people that are going to need assistance as a result of this. And one of the things that I have known, and I have experienced responding to other disasters is that there are people that often have a hard time accessing our programs, there’s barriers to our program.”

“And one of our focus areas since I’ve been in office is to make sure that we’re removing those barriers” she continued. “So, these people that need our help the most are going to be able to access the help that we offer. I know that the Vice President and the President, they share the same values. And again, I was on the ground Friday and Saturday, and I committed to the governor then that we are going to provide assistance to all Floridians because we know that there are people that are just completely devastated from the storm. We are going to be there to support everybody that needs help.

Brennan asked, “But just to be clear here, the senator said the vice president’s comments were about if you have a different skin color, you’re going to get relief. How do you again respond to that?”

“That again, Margaret, our programs support everybody,” Criswell replied. “I would say I believe some of the things the vice president was talking about are the long-term recovery and rebuilding these communities to be able to withstand disasters, so they can have less impact. We’re going to support all communities. I committed that to the governor, I commit to you right here that all Floridians are going to be able to get the help that is available to them through our programs.”

Following Harris’s remarks, Rapid Response Director for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign took to Twitter to quell panic among victims who aren’t “of color” that they would be deprived of federal assistance.

“This is false. @VP’s rhetoric is causing undue panic and must be clarified,” Christina Pushaw wrote on Twitter. “FEMA Individual Assistance is already available to all Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian, regardless of race or background. If you need assistance visit disasterassistance.gov or call 1-800-621-3362.”

Perhaps the greatest travesty of the modern Democratic Party is that its embrace of prejudice towards white people has rolled back decades of positive racial progress, a truly tragic development considering how hard a more traditionally liberal version of the party worked to embrace the highest ideals of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. whose dream of people being judged by the quality of their character and not the color of their skin had been largely realized before it was cast aside by the likes of Kamala Harris and her ilk.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated to include claims by fact-checkers that the vice president’s comments were missing context in reports.

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