FEMA Official Who Made Teleporting Claim Is Out

A senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official perhaps best known for making a sincere claim to have teleported to a Waffle House is no longer with the agency. Gregg Phillips, who since December has overseen the agency's Office of Response and Recovery, has gone on leave at the request of agency leadership amid concerns about his public image, reports the Washington Post. Another report at CNN says Phillips was "pushed out" permanently.

Phillips' former office controls major disaster operations and billions in aid, and FEMA praised his work in a statement confirming the departure. His appointment last year by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem drew scrutiny because of his insistence that millions of noncitizens voted illegally in 2016, his lack of emergency management experience, and his non-joking claim that he once teleported 50 miles to a Waffle House. "Teleporting is no fun," he said on one podcast last year. "It was real." In April, President Trump said he was looking into Phillips after being informed of the bizarre claim.