President Donald Trump on Wednesday hinted at the possibility of reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), claiming the agency has “not done their job”.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity in his first interview since returning to the White House, Trump continued to repeat the lies from online groups that the Biden administration did not send federal resources to North Carolina after a pair of hurricanes hit the state.
Trump placed the blame on FEMA, who employs over 20,000 people nationwide, with headquarters in D.C. and 10 regional offices, is charged with the response to all kinds of natural disasters and other emergencies.
FEMA is a whole other discussion, because all it does is complicate everything. FEMA has not done their job for the last four years,” said Trump. “Unless you have certain types of leadership, it really gets in the way.”
Trump then hinted he would reform or dismantle the agency altogether, wanting to give the responsibility to individual states to deal with natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other matters.
“FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said.
“You know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it … and then the federal government can help them out with the money. FEMA is getting in the way of everything,” Trump added.
Trump also threatened to cut off disaster aid for Democrat-run states if their state governments don’t help with his effort to enact a mass deportation of migrants, including those who are awaiting court dates to argue claims for asylum.
He repeated his calls for California to be denied federal resources to recover from the massive wildfires unless the Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom agrees to reverse sanctuary policies that prevent state and local police from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump lied and accused Newsom of mismanaging water supplies in the state, going on a rant about releasing water into the Pacific Ocean.
“There is massive amounts of water, rain water and mountain water, that comes to with the snow, comes down, as it melts, there’s so much water they’re releasing it into the Pacific Ocean,” he said.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into there just from the north to the south,” Trump added.
Trump lies that January 6 assaults on polices ‘minor incidents’
After backlash for his pardons of the January 6 rioters, Trump lashed out and lied that the violence against police were “minor incidents.”
“They were in there for three and a half years…treated like nobody’s ever been treated. So badly. Treated like the worst criminals in history,” Trump said of his decision.
“The other thing is this. Some of those people with the police, true. But they were very minor incidents. They get built up by a couple of fake guys who are on CNN all the time,” he continued.
The truth is five people were killed and many more were injured as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. Over 174 police officers were injured after they were beaten with flagpoles and pepper spray.
