November 20, 2024 • 8 mins
We speak with U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Clearwater) about the testimony of FEMA's director about the Trump signs incident, as well as the confirmation process for President-elect Trump's nominees, including attorney general pick Matt Gaetz.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the News. We have one of our
Tampa Bay area members of Congress on to talk about
the testimony by the current head of FEMA about that
incident in Lake Placid in which are now fired. Supervisor
told workers surveying after Hurricane Milton to avoid homes with
Trump signs. As we record this, Representative Ana Paulina Luno,
Panilla's county is stepping out of the House Oversight Committee
to talk with us about that.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Representative Luna, welcome, Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
What's your reaction to the testimony that you heard yesterday
from FEMA Director Deane Criswell about that incident.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You know, it's really alarming. I know that the administrator
had stated, at least to me during the questioning that
over twenty Americans were impacted by this. But what I
found is that Marnie Washington, who was the employee of
FEMA who was fired, actually after the firing occurred, she
actually went on various news outlets from CNN to podcast
and I watched those outlets because I wanted to see
(00:52):
what she had to say, and she had actually stated
that there were actually more people involved in this and
that it was larger scale, impacting not just Florida, but
North Carolina and Georgia as well. And she also pointed
to her supervisor, who I actually had confronted Griswell a
lot about it, and they had stated that her supervisor
is now also under investigation for giving the orders to
(01:14):
discriminate politically against Conservatives and Republicans in regards to FEMA
distance and aid. So I can tell you that for me,
it was obviously alarming to hear. I did already suspect
though that there was possible discrimination taking place after traveling
to North Carolina, where I learned that people there were
reporting that they were not getting any assistance with FEMA
and that they were just basically being ignored, and they
(01:35):
happened to be very red areas. And so obviously there's
going to be follow through, and I know that there's
an Inspector General report that will be coming out. But frankly,
FEMA as a whole needs to be overhauled and should
be under the President's direction directly, not Homeland, and I
look forward to the incoming administration and to they appoint
so that we can work through these issues. It's simply
im porn and awful.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you expect that Marty Washington will be called to
testify any point?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It depends so obviously right right now we're ending the
one hundred and eighteenth Congress moving into one hundred nineteenth Congress.
But I do think that Oversight should call her she testified,
because she clearly has a lot of information that FEMA
is maybe not necessarily being forthcoming about.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Well, of course, this incident in Lake Placid comes as
President is, as the outgoing President, Joe Biden, is asking
for ninety eight billion dollars in FEMA funding before the
session wraps up to help cover disasters including Hurricanes Helene
and Milton, which had an impact here and on the
district that you serve. Do you think that'll have any
impact on the passage of that ninety eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, look, I think that the FEMA passage is going
to happen. As you're saying, there have been many impacted communities,
not just in Florida, but North Carolina and Georgia that
are largely depending on that funding. And then there's also
the argument of we have to replenish the SBA funding,
which is for their small businesses as well. But what
I will say is based on what I'm seeing in
(03:02):
regards to the testimony from the administrator over at FEMA,
and then also the statements made by Marnie Washington, who
is the employee that was fired, there does need to
be a complete overhaul within FEMA because we know that
FEMA was, whether or not they want to outwardly admit it,
had an environment that they had created that allows for
their employees to discriminate against people with other political differences
(03:25):
in regards to their beliefs. So obviously that's not acceptable.
But I do think that with President Trump incoming, I
think that actually our own Kevin Guthrie, who's over at
the Governor's Department of Emergency Management, would actually be a
great appointee to FEMA. And I say that because of
the fact that I saw how he operated at least
at a state level in conjunction with the federal and
(03:45):
also working for the Governor's office. And I think that
someone from Florida specifically, who knows how to deal with hurricanes,
who was able to prove themselves not just once but
twice during multiple natural disasters, someone who's tried and tested,
would be a great appointee. And I think that you'd
be perfect for the position.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And obviously the THEMA pick has not been made yet,
but there are a number of appointments that have already
been announced by the incoming Trump administration. What's your thoughts
so far about the dynamic and the response in Washington
to those appointments.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Look, there's clearly a lot of people in Washington who
are concerned about the appointments, and whenever that happens, I
don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing, right. I
can tell you that the appointments that have been made
so far, Tulci, Gabbert, even RSK Junior, these are great appointments.
And then also you're seeing this national smear campaign against
the Attorney general pick, a nomination of Congressman Mackets. Now,
(04:39):
what I will tell you is, just yesterday on the
View they are actually forced to read a legal statement
that had stated that both the Department of Justice and
FBI found no evidence of wrongdoing with Representative Gates and
thus dropped charges. And so what you're finding now is
the same thing that they did to Justice Brett Kavanaughs.
And there are these conveniently times non missources that are
(05:01):
reporting things that happened that are not true, and so
that's exactly what you're seeing with this smear campaign with
Representative Gates. But I have faith in the confirmation process,
and I'm hoping that these senators, who largely dependent on
President Trump's coattails to get elected, will do the right thing,
give Representative Gates a fair shot at the confirmation and
(05:22):
let the facts be known, of which I'm sure Representative
Gates has put everything out there. But what should not
be acceptable and what should not be something that's common
practice is what's currently happening. And that's the smear campaign
that goes against any Republican or that comes on to
any Republican and or specifically male Republicans that are being
appointed to powerful positions like Congressman Gates. And so I
(05:43):
look forward to seeing what happens over the next few months.
But if Trump has as much influence as I think
he does, I think that Matt Gates will get confirmed.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I hope we'll get a chance to talk with you
again before the end of the year about the incoming
administration and the incoming Congress. New Congress taking over a
Republican control in both houses. A lot of the issues
people are already aware of. But what's one issue that
you expect is going to be prominent or come up
in the next Congress. Perhaps that maybe is not on
(06:13):
everybody's media radar right now.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, look, right now we go through the process. This
is considered a quote unquote lame dot Congress. So there's
not a lot that happens between now and the next
Congress because of the timelines. But the one thing that
continuously happens now is the rules and negotiations for the
how the one hundred and nineteenth Congress will conduct itself.
So one thing I've been very displeased about is, you know,
they're trying to change the rule on something called emotion
(06:37):
to vacate that would raise the threshold for anyone member
to recall the speaker if the speaker does not adhere
to they've promised the conference, right, And that's something that
was written in place by Thomas Jefferson. And I think
that because of what happened in this past Congress, there
are people that say, Okay, well, the majorities are too slim,
we don't want the speaker to get recalled. But also
(06:58):
you have to understand that right now we're trying to
avoid a speaker like we had in twenty sixteen that
blocked largely President Trump's agenda, and so we have to
have an accountability mechanism. So that's the first thing that
we're kind of sorting through right now. And then the
second thing would be there are members in Senate that
are Republicans that do not want there to be a
(07:18):
border security bill unless there's attached mass amnesty, and so
regardless of what the House puts forward, the Senate, if
they have their way, they will jam that into any
bill and essentially say, if you don't do this, we're
not going to do this. And so that's unacceptable. So
I'm waiting to see what happens with President Trump when
he gets into office. I think he'll be funding a
lot via executive order, as he should, because, as you know,
(07:41):
it's not just a Republican talking point now. I mean
even Democrats are arguing that we cannot stand an open
border with people coming over unvetted and unchussed, and so
it'll be interesting to see what happens. But I can
tell you that as soon as Trump's sworn into office,
for the first one hundred days, we're going to be here.
We're gonna be working hard.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We'll be watching all of those issues, and we appreciate
your calling us calling our attention to that, and I
will continue to follow those issues into the new year.
Representative Ana Pauline A. Luna, who represents Pinellas County most
of it anyway, in Congress. Thank you very much for
joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Thank you
Welcome to Beyond the News. We have one of our
Tampa Bay area members of Congress on to talk about
the testimony by the current head of FEMA about that
incident in Lake Placid in which are now fired. Supervisor
told workers surveying after Hurricane Milton to avoid homes with
Trump signs. As we record this, Representative Ana Paulina Luno,
Panilla's county is stepping out of the House Oversight Committee
to talk with us about that.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Representative Luna, welcome, Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
What's your reaction to the testimony that you heard yesterday
from FEMA Director Deane Criswell about that incident.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You know, it's really alarming. I know that the administrator
had stated, at least to me during the questioning that
over twenty Americans were impacted by this. But what I
found is that Marnie Washington, who was the employee of
FEMA who was fired, actually after the firing occurred, she
actually went on various news outlets from CNN to podcast
and I watched those outlets because I wanted to see
(00:52):
what she had to say, and she had actually stated
that there were actually more people involved in this and
that it was larger scale, impacting not just Florida, but
North Carolina and Georgia as well. And she also pointed
to her supervisor, who I actually had confronted Griswell a
lot about it, and they had stated that her supervisor
is now also under investigation for giving the orders to
(01:14):
discriminate politically against Conservatives and Republicans in regards to FEMA
distance and aid. So I can tell you that for me,
it was obviously alarming to hear. I did already suspect
though that there was possible discrimination taking place after traveling
to North Carolina, where I learned that people there were
reporting that they were not getting any assistance with FEMA
and that they were just basically being ignored, and they
(01:35):
happened to be very red areas. And so obviously there's
going to be follow through, and I know that there's
an Inspector General report that will be coming out. But frankly,
FEMA as a whole needs to be overhauled and should
be under the President's direction directly, not Homeland, and I
look forward to the incoming administration and to they appoint
so that we can work through these issues. It's simply
im porn and awful.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you expect that Marty Washington will be called to
testify any point?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It depends so obviously right right now we're ending the
one hundred and eighteenth Congress moving into one hundred nineteenth Congress.
But I do think that Oversight should call her she testified,
because she clearly has a lot of information that FEMA
is maybe not necessarily being forthcoming about.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Well, of course, this incident in Lake Placid comes as
President is, as the outgoing President, Joe Biden, is asking
for ninety eight billion dollars in FEMA funding before the
session wraps up to help cover disasters including Hurricanes Helene
and Milton, which had an impact here and on the
district that you serve. Do you think that'll have any
impact on the passage of that ninety eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, look, I think that the FEMA passage is going
to happen. As you're saying, there have been many impacted communities,
not just in Florida, but North Carolina and Georgia that
are largely depending on that funding. And then there's also
the argument of we have to replenish the SBA funding,
which is for their small businesses as well. But what
I will say is based on what I'm seeing in
(03:02):
regards to the testimony from the administrator over at FEMA,
and then also the statements made by Marnie Washington, who
is the employee that was fired, there does need to
be a complete overhaul within FEMA because we know that
FEMA was, whether or not they want to outwardly admit it,
had an environment that they had created that allows for
their employees to discriminate against people with other political differences
(03:25):
in regards to their beliefs. So obviously that's not acceptable.
But I do think that with President Trump incoming, I
think that actually our own Kevin Guthrie, who's over at
the Governor's Department of Emergency Management, would actually be a
great appointee to FEMA. And I say that because of
the fact that I saw how he operated at least
at a state level in conjunction with the federal and
(03:45):
also working for the Governor's office. And I think that
someone from Florida specifically, who knows how to deal with hurricanes,
who was able to prove themselves not just once but
twice during multiple natural disasters, someone who's tried and tested,
would be a great appointee. And I think that you'd
be perfect for the position.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And obviously the THEMA pick has not been made yet,
but there are a number of appointments that have already
been announced by the incoming Trump administration. What's your thoughts
so far about the dynamic and the response in Washington
to those appointments.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Look, there's clearly a lot of people in Washington who
are concerned about the appointments, and whenever that happens, I
don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing, right. I
can tell you that the appointments that have been made
so far, Tulci, Gabbert, even RSK Junior, these are great appointments.
And then also you're seeing this national smear campaign against
the Attorney general pick, a nomination of Congressman Mackets. Now,
(04:39):
what I will tell you is, just yesterday on the
View they are actually forced to read a legal statement
that had stated that both the Department of Justice and
FBI found no evidence of wrongdoing with Representative Gates and
thus dropped charges. And so what you're finding now is
the same thing that they did to Justice Brett Kavanaughs.
And there are these conveniently times non missources that are
(05:01):
reporting things that happened that are not true, and so
that's exactly what you're seeing with this smear campaign with
Representative Gates. But I have faith in the confirmation process,
and I'm hoping that these senators, who largely dependent on
President Trump's coattails to get elected, will do the right thing,
give Representative Gates a fair shot at the confirmation and
(05:22):
let the facts be known, of which I'm sure Representative
Gates has put everything out there. But what should not
be acceptable and what should not be something that's common
practice is what's currently happening. And that's the smear campaign
that goes against any Republican or that comes on to
any Republican and or specifically male Republicans that are being
appointed to powerful positions like Congressman Gates. And so I
(05:43):
look forward to seeing what happens over the next few months.
But if Trump has as much influence as I think
he does, I think that Matt Gates will get confirmed.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I hope we'll get a chance to talk with you
again before the end of the year about the incoming
administration and the incoming Congress. New Congress taking over a
Republican control in both houses. A lot of the issues
people are already aware of. But what's one issue that
you expect is going to be prominent or come up
in the next Congress. Perhaps that maybe is not on
(06:13):
everybody's media radar right now.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, look, right now we go through the process. This
is considered a quote unquote lame dot Congress. So there's
not a lot that happens between now and the next
Congress because of the timelines. But the one thing that
continuously happens now is the rules and negotiations for the
how the one hundred and nineteenth Congress will conduct itself.
So one thing I've been very displeased about is, you know,
they're trying to change the rule on something called emotion
(06:37):
to vacate that would raise the threshold for anyone member
to recall the speaker if the speaker does not adhere
to they've promised the conference, right, And that's something that
was written in place by Thomas Jefferson. And I think
that because of what happened in this past Congress, there
are people that say, Okay, well, the majorities are too slim,
we don't want the speaker to get recalled. But also
(06:58):
you have to understand that right now we're trying to
avoid a speaker like we had in twenty sixteen that
blocked largely President Trump's agenda, and so we have to
have an accountability mechanism. So that's the first thing that
we're kind of sorting through right now. And then the
second thing would be there are members in Senate that
are Republicans that do not want there to be a
(07:18):
border security bill unless there's attached mass amnesty, and so
regardless of what the House puts forward, the Senate, if
they have their way, they will jam that into any
bill and essentially say, if you don't do this, we're
not going to do this. And so that's unacceptable. So
I'm waiting to see what happens with President Trump when
he gets into office. I think he'll be funding a
lot via executive order, as he should, because, as you know,
(07:41):
it's not just a Republican talking point now. I mean
even Democrats are arguing that we cannot stand an open
border with people coming over unvetted and unchussed, and so
it'll be interesting to see what happens. But I can
tell you that as soon as Trump's sworn into office,
for the first one hundred days, we're going to be here.
We're gonna be working hard.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We'll be watching all of those issues, and we appreciate
your calling us calling our attention to that, and I
will continue to follow those issues into the new year.
Representative Ana Pauline A. Luna, who represents Pinellas County most
of it anyway, in Congress. Thank you very much for
joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Thank you
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