Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Flint boos: ‘I appreciate people being angry and frustrated’
A day after being nearly booed off the stage while introducing President Obama at a high school in Flint, Mich., Gov. Rick Snyder says he’s not stepping down over his office’s role in the ongoing water crisis there.
“My view is, you don’t walk away,” Snyder said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “You should take responsibility — and I have. And the values system I was raised on, you want to fix it as much or more than anyone. So my answer is instead of walking away from it, you solve it.”
Snyder, who has been harshly criticized for not addressing the lead contamination in Flint’s water system sooner, said he understands why people are angry.
“I appreciate people being angry and frustrated by the situation. It’s a difficult one,” he said. “This is a tragic situation that we need to address, and we’re on top of it in terms of moving forward. And it’s going to take some time to heal, though, because of, again, the trust issue.”
Speaking in Flint, Obama tried to assure residents that his administration is “working hard to make sure that Flint is whole again, to make sure that this proud city bounces back, not just to where it was, but stronger than ever.”
“I want all of you to know I am confident that Flint will come back,” the president said.
Snyder said Obama’s presence in Flint was a "positive step” toward the city’s recovery.
“It shows that we need the city, we need the county, we need the state, and we need the federal government all agreeing that, let’s not spend time on the historical questions, but let’s solve this problem by working together,” the governor said.
But some critics, like filmmaker Michael Moore, were unmoved.
“You know, I love President Obama,” Moore said. “I voted for him twice — and I’m very disappointed in this.”
Moore criticized Obama for taking a sip of Flint’s filtered water.
“To drink from a glass of water, of Flint water, when a number of experts are still saying that this water is not safe, it’s still going through the same corroded lead pipes, it was such a disappointing thing to see,” Moore said. “Flint is a city that has really been destroyed, first by General Motors, then by Wall Street, and now by this Republican governor who, in order to give a billion-dollar tax cut to the rich in Michigan, had to cut back on services. And one of the services he decided to cut back on is drinking water to a poor city like Flint.”
Moore — who has called for Snyder to face charges for ignoring warnings about Flint’s water supply — said there was one thing Obama could’ve done to appease the people of Flint.
“When Governor Snyder was there at the bottom of the stairs of Air Force One today, when President Obama came down, it would have been nice to see the president clock him,” Moore said.
