David Richardson started his first meeting as acting FEMA chief with a bang. Within minutes of launching an all-hands meeting, Richardson, who was named acting head of the agency on Thursday, May 8, reportedly laid into staffers, warning them, “Don’t get in my way.”
The threat was part of a bizarre, 17-minute speech to staffers, during which Richardson repeatedly vowed allegiance to Trump, threatened workers who might “undermine” the president’s agenda, and declared “I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA.”
Referencing his background in the Marines, Richardson, a former ground combat officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said, “I had too important a mission for anybody to undermine me or to make things difficult.” He then said he’d take a similar approach to running FEMA. To any staffers considering “obfuscating, delaying, or undermining” Trump’s agenda, Richardson warned, “I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent.”
When it came to his actual title, Richardson didn’t seem exactly sure, telling staff, “I can’t recall the full title, but essentially, I’m acting. I don’t need the full title. All I need is the authority from the president to put me in here as some degree of acting.” (For the record, Richardson is the Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator, an interim role that makes him acting head of the agency.)
But Richardson didn’t let forgetting his own title stop him. Instead, he went on to warn staffers, “I don’t stop at yield signs.” Whatever that means.
While Richardson hasn’t clarified exactly what he meant by the remarks, the Trump administration has already thrown its full support behind him. When asked about the comments, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told CBS, “Sounds like a productive meeting.”
Indeed, Richardson’s approach seems to be the exact opposite of his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, who was fired yesterday after publicly disagreeing with Trump. While testifying at a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Hamilton was asked about the president’s plan to eliminate FEMA, and told the committee, “I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed that Hamilton was removed for saying something “contrary to the president.”
In contrast, Richardson spent most of his introductory speech pledging allegiance to Trump, at one point telling staffers, “I am as bent on achieving the president’s intent as I was on making sure that I did my duty when I took my Marines to Iraq.”
Richardson refused to take questions from staff and instead closed the meeting by likening working for FEMA to the life-or-death dangers of being in the Marines. “I’ve had friends who are either dead, physically or very damaged emotionally because they ran into trouble doing things that were not within their mission during combat,” Richardson told staffers. “It’s the same thing for a mission like FEMA.”
However, he also assured FEMA employees, “I’m fine operating in chaos and a very ambiguous environment.” Sounds like that will come in handy.
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