FEMA Chief Asked At Hearing Do You ‘Control The Weather’ Or ‘Send Hurricanes’ To Trump Areas

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asked FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell if she or her agency “controls the weather” or “sends hurricanes” to areas based on political considerations at a hearing this week.

Fired FEMA employee Marn’i Washington was dismissed for telling workers in Florida to skip Trump houses during the Hurricane Milton recovery effort — but Washington says she was following orders, and that her instruction was a temporary “avoidance and de-escalation” measure. During Hurricane Helen, relief work was delayed because of an “armed militia” hunting FEMA workers.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing this week on FEMA’s response to hurricanes that focused mainly on the incident.

But when Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s turn to question Administrator Criswell came around, he used part of his time to mock conspiracy theories that were spread by Republicans, including about “controlling the weather”:

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Administrator, for your service. I want to show you a visual. Do you recognize this picture?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: I do not.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: Good. It’s an atmospheric research facility in Alaska that, believe it or not, conspiracy theorists allege is a mind-controlling weather machine. And one of the conspiracy theories out there is that somehow FEMA controls the weather. And I assume that you as the administrator do not control the weather, right?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: I do not control the weather.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you don’t use secret machines to control hurricanes to target certain places in the United States, right?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Correct.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you and your team did not direct severe weather at North Carolina to quote unquote, “commandeer lithium mine property” in that state. Right.

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Why would anybody want to bring harm to the American people?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you would not direct severe weather to target anyone of a particular political party, right?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Never.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: You’re not establishing FEMA camps to detain individuals or enact martial law, right?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Correct.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: These are all conspiracy theories that you’ve had to deal with. I’m glad that you have addressed them in this forum.

Now, let me talk about stuff that’s true. It’s true that during Hurricanes Leon and Milton, FEMA assisted more than 35,000 households with disaster relief. Right?

ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: That number sounds about correct.

Watch above via Pool.