Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder responded Monday to criticism from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the Democratic debates for his handling of Flint’s water emergency, saying Clinton is making it a political issue.
During Sunday’s debate, Clinton said “every single American should be outraged” by the water crisis, adding that “if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would have been action.”
Following a speaking engagement at a Martin Luther King Day event in Flint, the Republican governor said her tactic doesn’t help solve the problem.
“We’re going to keep working on putting solutions in place,” Snyder told The Detroit News. “And what I would say is: Politicizing the issue doesn’t help matters. Let’s focus in on the solution and how to deal with the damage that was done and help the citizens of Flint and make Flint a stronger community.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, has called for Snyder’s resignation.
The crisis began in 2014 when a state-appointed emergency manager switched Flint from Detroit water to Flint River water to save money. The corrosivewater caused lead to leach from old pipes. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October after elevated lead levels were discovered in children.
But officials remain concerned that damaged pipes could continue to leach lead, which can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children as well as kidney ailments in adults.
Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint earlier this month. On Saturday, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration but denied Snyder’s request for a disaster declaration based on the legal requirement that such relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Monday that she will travel Tuesday to Washington in hopes of securing a disaster declaration anyway, The Flint Journal reported. That declaration would provide more money and resources than the emergency declaration.
Dozens of people protested outside Snyder’s residence in downtown Ann Arbor on Monday afternoon, marching there from the nearby University of Michigan campus. They said he didn’t act swiftly enough to help Flint residents and held signs calling for his dismissal and arrest.
Snyder said Monday that he is considering requests from outside groups to release internal emails about the Flint water crisis, The News reported. His office is shielded from public record requests under state law.
Members of Michigan’s National Guard have been called in to help volunteers pass out drinking water, testing kits, filters and other supplies to city residents, and the state said more Guard members arrived Monday to bring the total to 70.
Nearly 5,000 homes were visited Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
It sounds like the state-appointed emergency manager should be the one to get fired. It would be worth knowing if anyone considered water quality issues before this “money saving” move was made. This is a good example that sometimes an action may save a small amount of money on the front end but it will come at a high long term cost.
This is not Clinton using it as political football, she is pointing out facts. Leadership under the GOP always gets screwed up. Don’t believe me, rethink where we were economically in 2007, look at Kansas, Brownback has ruined the little chance of them crawling out of the hole he has put them in. Look at Wisconsin 49th in the state, and you guys wanted Scott Walker as president! Oh but it is so much easier to blame the black man, for the ignorance of these GOP whities. And Flint well that was Stupidity, and as I hear on this site, There is no cure for stupidity.
Look at who lost our AAA credit rating, raised our debt by trillions more than ALL THE PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED, put more people on welfare, has more civil unrest under his belt, has alienated our allies, armed and financed our enemies, and THEN you can complain about the Republicans.
These DemaCrooks always try to blame others for their Incompetent, Racist Anti American Anti Military LIAR in chief barry!! IF ole barry wouldn’t have Bankrupted Our country MANY TIMES over, there would be money for fixing infrastructure, like lead pipes. etc etc His global warming CRAP, bringing hes Religious Bros here and his other STUPID Socialist/Communist Causes take first place and of course his Convenient Obamabot Idiots fall right in line and swallow all of his SWILL and LIES!! Ditto for the OLD HAG Kil and the OLD FOSSIL bern the SOcialist/Communist from waaaaay back!! These DemoRATS are the best that the dems have!!! LOL!!! I should add, because these Racist scum always try to accuse anybody who has the Sense to Not be fooled by their LIAR in chief, of being Racist, when the biggest RACIST is ole barry, that i would Gladly vote for Carson, Rice,West, Cane, etc who are all GASP,,, BLACK!! Kinda blows the Racist CRAP, so stick it where the sun doesn’t shine!!!
JIm I call it like I see it. I used to be republican, until it turned into tea residue. President is not anti-american, you are for telling lies about our president.
President Obama is not a member of the KKK or a white supremacist organization. He is not the one calling names, he is on the receiving side, have to take a lot of disrespect and ugliness from a lot of haters, just because that’s what they are is haters.
I don’t know what la la planet you live on to make a false statement that President Obama has bankrupted us over and over, to the contrary our economy is better then it has been since Bush and Bush.
Global warming crap, is closer then you think, did you see what Hurricane Alex did to the glaciers. Keep you denials intact and disregard 97% of what scientist have to say.
Your rant is hard to follow other then you hate President Obama, but get over it. He has done a lot of good for America, it sad that your hatred does not allow you to see straight.
Patty,it was Cruz who held America hostage with his children stories “Green Eggs and Ham” and didn’t allow funding, you can try to blame that on OBama, but you know the truth.
You are lying, President Obama did not put more people on welfare, Bushes near depression cause pain on a lot of folks.
You are lying, the trillions you speaks of are to fund Cheney’s war and the afterbirth he created. You can’t create a bill and, not budget and then say it’s someone else fault.
President has not alienated nobody, this deal he passed on Iran was created with 150 countries, and none of them are alienated. Now Trump on the other hand is not even president and they are already kicking him out of Britain.
It’s a lie, he has not armed our enemies, he has helped those that are trying to destroy ISIL.
Today on Morning Joe Secretary Gates said he does not think not one of the republicans on clown stage could handle the job.
And yes I do complain about the Tea Party, they hate the government but gladly suck on its tit. Where do they turn to when the screw up, the government. They are a bunch of non productive, woman controlling, false christian haters.
Hear! Hear!
Alicia, why don’t we take a close look at Wisconsin? Theye were running an ioncredible deficit and Scott Walker took on the Unions and turned that state’s budget around, creating a surplus ! You must be in the teacher’s union….
Don’t confuse these LIB DEM IDIOTS, with FACTS!! LOL!!
J-man “Between December 2009 and December 2010, Wisconsin ranked 13th in the country in its rate of employment growth. It was Walker’s radical right wing economic policies that put the brakes on Wisconsin’s recovery, with the state’s ranking in employment growth plummeting in 2011 and remaining anchored in the 30s and 40s ever since.” Fact are Facts, you are looking at the apple and comparing it to the orange. Unions is what helped the middle class get strong and ever since the republicans have ben dismantling them, the middle class is dwindling. Yeah good work, keep it up, soon we will all be making minimum wage, which according to trump is too much.
It was a democrats that let all Canada’s contaminated garbage to be moved here to mi. It was a democrats that aloud deep well injection in mi. Even after being told they would be dangerous and could contaminate our fresh water, they did it anyway and less than 5 yr the licks started, for over 40 yrs the democrats have slowly but surely distroid mi.
Check history.
Hillery would sacrifice her family to get elected. She’s low as low can get
Ole Lib HAG Kilary would do Anything for POWER!!
No Joy she wouldn’t, stop lying and accusing people of $shit you don’t know, unless of course you are being paid, and then well, that’s the end of this conversations, paid trolls are just that, no brain needed to apply.
What I can’t understand is, after having the last eight years of a destructive Democratic experience, Why do Americans insist in supporting their dreadful and destructive ideology? I thought Americans were more intelligent than that. To prove my point, Why is a person accused of so many wrong doing is still free so pathetically and a firm believer that she is above the rest, above the laws? Any citizen with half her accusations presently cannot acquire a fire arm and would be in jail, if a bond is not posted. This callous, decrepit, mal-feasance, pathological liar is very happy because she is running for president and will, like the Muslim president, make history. This Nation deserve better and most do away with “making history “. Apparently, the last eight terrible years haven’t been bad enough to change American voters way of assimilating reality. The Non-24 Americans can’t seem to fully understand the danger of making more history with these pathological liars, and, once and for all, get rid of all the leaches in The House and Congress, i.e., Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell.