During an appearance on Talk! Radio 102.3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) was declared a federal emergency for his mishandling of Hurricane Helen relief in neighboring North Carolina. He criticized FEMA.
The Tennessee Republican U.S. senator says the agency has abandoned its primary mission and prioritized people who are here illegally over Americans.
“So you have fact-checkers in partisan media saying that FEMA funding for illegal immigrant resettlement is different than funding for disaster recovery,” he said. “Well, they shouldn't have funding lines for the resettlement of illegal immigrants, and they shouldn't be short-staffed in key core positions. That's what I've been advocating. It's a problem of mismanagement. It's a problem of incompetence.”
“If disaster recovery is understaffed and you can't send people to the scene, it doesn't matter how much budget you have,” Hagerty added. “What this means is that management is not focused on the right things, and their mission – they are far from it. They think it's their mission to resettle people who have entered the country illegally, but they don't take action.”
Follow Jeff Poore on X @jeff_poor
