In March, Phillips became even more controversial when CNN reported that the FEMA official had claimed, more than once, that he was involuntarily teleported, including an incident in which he said he was sent to a Waffle House restaurant 50 miles away. In response to questions about his alleged experiences, the FEMA official continued to insist on the validity of his claims......

At that point, it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before the FEMA official started updating his résumé. It’s against this backdrop that The Washington Post reported:

A high-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who sparked controversy for claiming that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election and that he once teleported to a Waffle House has gone on leave, agency officials confirmed Thursday.

.....The developments leave us with a couple of lingering questions.

The first is why Phillips was given this job in the first place. It’s not as if this guy was rewarded for his political loyalties with some obscure position deep within the federal bureaucracy. On the contrary, CNN’s original report noted that despite his weird beliefs, Phillips was in one of “the most consequential” positions at FEMA, leading an office that makes decisions involving “search-and-rescue operations, emergency aid, infrastructure restoration and ultimately distributing billions of dollars in disaster assistance.”

The second is whether the emergency response agency can handle being shorthanded as hurricane season gets underway. Politico reported in late May, “The Trump administration is approaching hurricane season with the smallest disaster workforce since 2021, a huge backlog of state aid requests and 15 vacancies in top emergency management jobs.”

Phillips’ departure, in other words, adds a degree of tumult to an agency that has struggled to find stability over the past year and a half.