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.”
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