Comments Draw National Attention To Issue Ignored By Much Of Mainstream Media
At the end of Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate, the candidates were given 60 seconds to choose an issue they wanted to speak on. Hillary Clinton immediately jumped on the Flint, Michigan water crisis, insisting that “every single American should be outraged” over the lead poisoning of 100,000 residents, including children.
“We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population which is poor in many ways, and majority African-American has been drinking and bathing in lead contaminated water and the governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” she said. “He had requests for help that he basically stonewalled. I’ll tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water, and being bathed in it there would’ve been action.”
Clinton went on to note she had appeared on “a TV show,” which was MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, and noted that within two hours of her calling GOP Governor Rick Snyder‘s inaction “outrageous,” he went into action.
Michigan’s MLive notes that, just as after Clinton’s attack on Snyder on MSNBC, after Clinton’s debate comments, a “series of tweets on Snyder’s Twitter page late Sunday night discuss the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency in Genesee County activation of the Michigan National Guard and asking President Obama for federal aid.”
Bernie Sanders followed up after Clinton, one of the few times during this debate where the two challengers actually agreed.
“What Secretary Clinton was right, and what I did whch I think is also right is demanded the resignation of the governor. A man who acts that irresponsibly should not stay in power.â€
The comments from both Clinton and Sanders were heralded by some on social media, including Flint native, filmmaker Michael Moore:
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Video via The Washington Post