The White House News

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against current and former officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for allegedly ordering its workers to ignore storm victims who support President-elect Trump.

The revelation made headlines following whistle-blower reports that FEMA workers in Lake Placid, Florida, were told to skip over households of storm victims who showed support for Trump.

“FEMA workers followed these instructions and entered in a government database messages such as ‘Trump sign no entry per leadership,’” the lawsuit states. “According to whistleblowers, ‘at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags’ in Lake Placid, Florida ‘were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance.’”

Moody vowed to investigate the allegations as Floridians still face the threat of damaging storms this season.

FEMA OFFICIAL FIRED FOR TELLING STAFF TO AVOID HELPING TRUMP SUPPORTERS SAYS AGENCY SCAPEGOATING HER

“Hurricane season is not over, and the federal agency in charge of emergency response is embroiled in scandal – caught withholding aid from storm victims in Florida who support President Trump,” the attorney general said. “I am taking swift legal action to find out how far this political discrimination reaches and to make sure all Americans who fall victim to devastating storms are served, regardless of their political affiliation.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he supports the legal action and further instructed other state agencies to take “any action necessary” to investigate and hold alleged wrongdoers accountable.

“It’s unacceptable for the federal government to discriminate against Floridians who voted for Trump, and especially egregious in the aftermath of a hurricane,” he said.

When Fox News Digital reached FEMA for comment about the legal action, a FEMA spokesperson said, “FEMA does not comment on pending litigation,” and provided a statement that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell issued over the weekend about the incident and the firing of the employee.

FIRED FEMA EMPLOYEE SAYS INSTRUCTIONS TO SKIP TRUMP HOMES WERE PART OF ‘COLOSSAL AVOIDANCE’ POLICY

On Saturday, Criswell confirmed to Fox News Digital that the employee had been fired, calling her actions “reprehensible” and a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.

A FEMA spokesperson told Fox News on Friday that the agency was “deeply disturbed” by the fired worker’s actions but insisted it was an “isolated incident.”

The fired FEMA supervisor, Marn’i Washington, has said her actions were consistent with agency guidance and were not isolated to her team alone and claimed FEMA is scapegoating her.

“Why is this coming down on me? I am the person that jotted down the notes from my superiors and my notation in [Microsoft] Teams chat was exposed from their search capacity team,” Washington told “Fox News @ Night” on Wednesday.

The lawsuit is seeking punitive damages against Washington and Criswell in their individual capacities.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays, Michael Dorgan, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

More than a week after Election Day, the final outcome of the 2024 election is still yet to be decided as eight House races remain uncalled.

Republican Donald Trump won the presidency again and the GOP will have the Senate majority. The GOP is projected to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives, but the size of that majority will be unclear until all the votes are counted. The balance of power currently sits at 218 seats for Republicans and 209 for the Democrats. 

Oregon’s 5th Congressional District was the latest race to be called Thursday, where Democrat Janelle Bynum is projected to oust Republican incumbent Rep. Lori-Chavez-DeRemer.

Here’s where things stand with the uncalled House races: 

GOP INCUMBENT PROJECTED TO DEFEAT DEM CHALLENGER IN CLOSELY WATCHED ARIZONA HOUSE RACE

Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola is in a tight race in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, where she is trailing Republican entrepreneur Nick Begich.

As of Thursday morning, Begich holds more than a 3-point lead at 49% of the vote compared to Peltola’s 45.9%. The vote count sits at 145,754 to 136,319, with roughly 94% of the vote counted.

Democratic incumbent Josh Harder leads Republican challenger Kevin Lincoln by more than 3 percentage points. Though the race is uncalled, Lincoln has conceded to Harder.

“While the results are not what we had hoped for, I remain incredibly proud of the journey we’ve shared and the incredible progress we’ve made together,” Lincoln said in a statement. 

“This campaign may have ended, but the work continues.” 

The district had about 86% of the vote recorded as of Thursday, and Harder’s lead expanded to 8,125 votes. 

Republican Rep. John Duarte is leading former Democratic state assembly member Adam Gray in California’s 13th Congressional District, but the highly contested race remains uncalled as of Thursday.

Roughly 74% of the vote has been counted, and Duarte holds a 51.2% to 48.8% lead. The pair is separated by just under 4,000 votes.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Costa leads his Republican challenger, Michael Maher, in a 51.6% to 48.4% race as of Thursday morning.

So far, 81.7% of the vote has been counted, and Costa’s lead is more than 5,000 votes. 

Incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Steel leads her Democratic challenger Derek Tran by a few hundred votes as of Thursday morning. A little more than 92% of the votes have been counted, and Steel’s lead has shrunk to 349 votes.

REPUBLICANS PROJECTED TO KEEP CONTROL OF HOUSE AS TRUMP PREPARES TO IMPLEMENT AGENDA

Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannet Miller-Meeks holds a less than 1% lead over challenger Christina Bohannan with 99% of the vote counted. Miller-Meeks’ lead sits at just under 1,000 votes.

Democratic incumbent Jared Golden holds a razor-thin lead over Republican challenger Austin Theriault as of Thursday morning.

With 98% of the votes counted, Golden’s lead sits at less than 800 votes.

TRUMP THROWS FULL SUPPORT BEHIND MIKE JOHNSON BEFORE SPEAKER ELECTION

Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur leads her Republican challenger, Derek Merrin, by less than 1 point with 99% of the votes counted. Kaptur’s lead sits at just over 1,000 votes as of Tuesday.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Oregon Republican Rep. Lori-Chavez-DeRemer has been ousted by Democratic challenger state Rep. Janelle Bynum in the state’s 5th Congressional District, The Associated Press projected Thursday, more than a week after Election Day.

The win narrows the Republican majority in the House to 218 seats to Democrats’ 209.

The race was rated a toss-up by the Fox News Power Rankings.

Chavez-DeRemer was elected to Congress in 2022, defeating her Democratic opponent by two points. With the victory, Chavez-DeRemer became the first woman to represent Oregon in the House of Representatives.

Bynum, who previously defeated Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon legislature races multiple times, was elected to the Oregon House in 2016 and has served on the chamber’s small business committee. She is also the owner of four McDonald’s franchises.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST COULD DECIDE WHICH PARTY CONTROLS THE HOUSE

The two candidates engaged in a contentious race in recent months, with Bynum attempting to link Chavez-DeRemer to President-elect Donald Trump and her position on abortion, as the congresswoman hit Bynum on crime and illegal immigration. 

Last month, it was first reported by Fox News Digital that Bynum was the subject of an ethics complaint for allegedly failing to properly report allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a PAC staffer that worked on her campaign. Bynum has denied those allegations, which the two candidates sparred over in multiple debates.

‘INCENDIARY DEVICE’ SPARKS FIRE AT PORTLAND, OREGON BALLOT BOX

Election experts predicted that the race between Chavez-DeRemer and Bynum could play a key role in deciding which party controls Congress.

High-profile figures campaigned for both candidates in the campaign’s closing weeks, with GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson rallying with Chavez-DeRemer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stumping for Bynum. 

Oregon’s recently redrawn 5th Congressional District covers Linn County, most of Clackamas, Deschutes, and parts of Multnomah and Marion counties.

Some Democratic lawmakers blasted former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard after President-elect Donald Trump tapped her to serve as director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level post.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., declared in a post on X that she was “appalled” by the selection of Gabbard for the role. 

“Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin,” Spanberger claimed in a post on X.

TRUMP APPOINTS TULSI GABBARD AS DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: ‘FEARLESS SPIRIT’

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., called the choice of Gabbard as DNI “incredibly reckless,” declaring in a tweet, “Putting someone with known sympathies for foreign adversaries is not putting America’s interests first – it’s putting our security at risk.”

Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., seemed to suggest that having Gabbard serve as DNI would place national secrets at risk.

“Tulsi Gabbard’s deep ties to some of our nation’s most dangerous adversaries, including Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Vladimir Putin of Russia, make her an untrustworthy guardian of our nation’s most closely held secrets,” Magaziner said in the statement. 

“As the highest-ranking intelligence official in the federal government, she would have access to information spanning everything from our nation’s nuclear weapons program to the location and activities of our military service members, and we cannot risk this information falling into the hands of our adversaries,” he asserted.

TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS WILL GET ‘RADICALLY WORSE’ UNDER A HARRIS PRESIDENCY, WARNS TULSI GABBARD

Gabbard served in the U.S. House of Representatives from early 2013 through early 2021 as a Democrat. She mounted a presidential bid in 2019 but ultimately dropped out in 2020 and backed Joe Biden.

The former lawmaker supported Trump during the 2024 election and announced that she was joining the Republican Party.

“I’ve been a soldier for over 21 years, and currently serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve,” she noted in a post on Veterans Day this week. 

TULSI GABBARD SAYS TRUMP ‘LISTENS’ AND ‘RECOGNIZES’ CHALLENGES AMERICANS FACE

“The best way for us to honor our veterans, not just on #VeteransDay, but every day, is to make sure that our men and women in uniform are only sent into harms’ way as a last resort when all diplomatic measures have been exhausted, and actually take care of them and their families, if and when they return home,” she noted.

Fox News Digital attempted to reach out to Gabbard for comment on Thursday.