Sanders: Snyder should resign over Flint water crisis
Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign over Flint’s lead-contaminated water supply, calling it “one of the worst public health crises in the modern history of this country.”
In an exclusive interview Saturday with The Detroit News, Sanders said Snyder’s multiple apologies for his administration allowing Flint water to go untreated for preventing corrosion of lead-soldered pipes “is just not good enough.”
“And I think the governor has got to take the responsibility and say, ‘You know what, my administration was absolutely negligent and a result of that negligence, many children may suffer for the rest of their lives and the right thing to do is to resign,’” Sanders said in a telephone interview from Vermont.
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Appearing on the CBS Sunday talk show “Face The Nation,” Clinton said Snyder should have sought federal emergency assistance “weeks ago." But the former secretary of state did not go as far as Sanders did in calling for Snyder to leave office just one year into his second term.
“I don’t want to get caught up in the political back-and-forth here, I want to help the people of Flint,” Clinton said. “And I particularly want a comprehensive health analysis of what’s happened to these children.”
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Sanders said the state-appointed emergency manager money-saving use of Flint River water was shortsighted given the long-term damage caused to Flint’s water pipeline and residents’ health.
“It just tells me that we have a lot of these anti-government folks running administrations all over this country who could care less about the well being of our children, whether it’s in education, whether it’s in health, whether it’s environmentally,” Sanders said. “It’s just unacceptable.”
“You don’t save money while poisoning our children, that is is not acceptable.”
Sanders noted Flint is a majority African American city whose residents “don’t have a whole lot of money.”
“It’s an outrage and it’s unacceptable and I think the governor has got to accept this responsibility and do the right thing, and that is to resign,” Sanders told The News.
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The independent Vermont senator, who is a democratic-socialist but votes with Democrats in the U.S. Senate, said he wasn’t weighing in on Flint’s crisis just because Clinton has been all week. Clinton dispatched two top campaign aides to Flint on Wednesday to meet with Mayor Karen Weaver.
“It’s not Sen. Clinton ... it’s not a question of compelled, it’s a question of understanding that when you have a crisis of this proportion, it’s absolutely imperative that the governor accept his responsibility, show the people of Flint and Michigan that he does appreciate the calamity that he caused and has the courage to the right thing, which is step down,” Sanders said.
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