Mike Johnson corrects MSNBC: ‘Facts are important’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) corrected MSNBC 's reporting on the Federal Emergency Management Agency 's funding.

The agency has come under fire for its lack of funding, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Meanwhile, the agency reported there were twice as many disasters in 2023 than in 2016.

FEMA allocated $640 million this year toward its Shelter and Services Program, which has helped migrants find food and housing, which is separate from its $20 million in disaster preparedness funding. The Biden administration has classified any criticisms about this disproportionate spending as "misinformation." MSNBC's Kristen Welker echoed the sentiment, referring to any claim of redirected funds as "debunked."

"This FEMA dollars going to resettle migrants, that is a fact. That is an objective fact," Johnson said. "What he's talking about is not the disaster relief fund, but it's another fund FEMA used to resettle all of the illegal aliens that they let across the open border. Kamala Harris, the border czar, was the engineer of that."

"FEMA funds were not redirected to house migrants. That has been debunked. It's a separate fund. FEMA has said as much," Welker interjected.

"That's right," Johnson said.

"We should note that FEMA funds were actually redirected on Donald Trump’s watch to deal with the migrant issue," Welker said.

"No, no ma’am. No, wait a minute, hold on, wait a minute. Facts are important," Johnson said. "That is a new program that started in 2020 under Joe Biden . That funding wasn’t necessary under Trump’s administration, because we secured the border. We didn’t invite illegal aliens and dangerous people into the country. That’s a Biden-Harris policy and everybody knows it."

"It did happen under Donald Trump's watch," Welker said.

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"No, it didn't. No, he did not. That is a brand new account," Johnson said.

Congress funded the Shelter and Services Program after voting it into effect last year. Meanwhile, Congress did not opt to add $10 billion toward natural disasters in last month’s continuing resolution to fund the government.