After citing a House GOP report noting that the FEMA/migrant lie is false, Fox's Maria Bartiromo dishonestly suggests it still could be true

A Fox reporter debunked the network's lie about migrants and FEMA resources. Watch Maria Bartiromo dishonestly try to move the goalposts to keep it alive.

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

On the evening of October 8, Fox reporter Chad Pergram posted that Fox had obtained a fact sheet authored by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee which debunked narratives that had been pushed by Fox and Republicans about Federal Emergency Management Agency funding:

Fox has obtained a fact sheet assembled by the majority side of House Appropriations Committee about disaster aid.

It says that FEMA “has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.”

It also declares there is “no funding connection between” the migrant shelter program and the Disaster Relief Fund. It adds there is “no intermingling of funding between these two programs.” It adds that “the only connection is that both programs are administered by FEMA.”

On the morning of October 9, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo hosted Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), also of the House Appropriations Committee. Clyde proceeded, at Bartiromo's urging, to undermine what Pergram had reported, suggesting the opposite was true. Bartiromo in particular pointed to a 2022 video of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to suggest FEMA money was being inappropriately used on migrants.

USA Today had also debunked the claims made about FEMA's emergency food and shelter program, discussing Facebook posts that cited the same clip of Jean-Pierre:

The post’s use of the phrase “FEMA emergency money” and its mention of “current hurricane damage” asserts a connection between the disaster spending and funding used for immigrants. But this conflates multiple FEMA programs, which have funds appropriated from different sources for use in specific ways.

When asked for evidence to support the claim, the Facebook user shared a September 2022 clip of White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre referencing FEMA’s emergency food and shelter program as a means of assistance after dozens of migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard with false promises of jobs and housing. But that program has nothing to do with the disaster relief fund. Its stated purpose is to provide the homeless with food and shelter.

In a statement posted to its website, FEMA stated that “no money is being diverted from disaster response needs." And White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez posted to X, formerly Twitter, that the Disaster Relief Fund is “completely separate from other grant programs administered by FEMA.”

Watch the full segment with Clyde below.

From the October 9, 2024, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Welcome back. House Appropriations Committee Republicans are saying that FEMA has enough funding in the short term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. In a memo, they also write that there is no funding connection between the migrant shelter program and the disaster relief fund and that there is, quote, no intermingling of funding between these two programs. But House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said yesterday he wants FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to testify next month about the federal government's response to both storms. Watch this.

...

BARTIROMO: Joining me now is Georgia congressman Andrew Clyde, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. Congressman, good to see you. Thank you so much for being here. And didn't Congress just authorize more money for FEMA in the most recent continuing resolution?

ANDREW CLYDE (R-GA): Well, good morning, Maria. Absolutely, Congress did. FEMA ended the year September 30 with $1.8 billion in their disaster recovery program, their natural disaster program. And Congress just appropriated another over $20 billion to FEMA. So FEMA has over $22 billion available to them. So there's no way in the world that FEMA is running out of money here in early October.

BARTIROMO: So why did the head of the entire division, the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, tell us just last week that FEMA was running out of money?

CLYDE: Well, I think in my experience with Secretary Mayorkas, it's difficult to know when he's telling the truth and when he isn't. But this particular individual just has never been forthright, I think, to the people or to Congress. It's a scare tactic, in my opinion. You know, FEMA has enough money. What they don't have is enough solid good leadership.

BARTIROMO: Well, I also want to talk to you about this worry that there in fact is intermingling with this money. I understand the Republicans are saying that these are two separate funds, but why did Karine Jean-Pierre tell us two years ago that FEMA was going to be helping, and FEMA money was going to be helping illegal immigrants? Watch this.

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BARTIROMO: So, congressman, which is it? Did they use FEMA money to pay and care and house illegal migrants?

CLYDE: Oh, absolutely, they use FEMA money. You know, whether it's two different pots of money or not is irrelevant. I think what the Biden-Harris administration has done is they have twisted the mission of FEMA and now they're using FEMA money to support illegal aliens coming into this country. That should never be the mission of FEMA. You know, they should be supporting Americans and those who are here legally when a disaster occurs — when a natural disaster occurs.

BARTIROMO: So, then, why are the Republicans on the appropriations saying no they did not intermingle funds. We just heard specific details from Karine Jean-Pierre, you just confirmed they did use FEMA money for the illegal migrants, but they're saying they didn't, so are they lying?

CLYDE: Well, I would tell you that the administration is going to tell you whatever they want — they think you want to hear at that particular time, but it's all FEMA money. And this program that they're using for the illegal aliens, this migrant shelter program, should never be part of FEMA. That is a twisting of FEMA's mission, in my opinion, and in our Republican appropriation for DHS, we actually stripped money from that account for FY25, in the way it should be.

 

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BARTIROMO: Thank you, Andrew Clyde, for joining us. And by the way, Mehek, you said the same thing that the congressman said — it doesn't matter that it's two different funds; it's FEMA money.

MEHEK COOKE (GUEST): Right. It's all coming from the same organization that's supposed to be for disaster relief, so they're gaslighting us when they say well that was a different fund.