A Deliberate Slight To Flint's Mayor On Heels Of Donald Trump Visit To City?
DETROIT (WWJ) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be in Flint on Wednesday but there won't be any photo-op with the local mayor.
He's reportedly taking a tour of the city and visiting the city's water plant.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver says she's baffled by the visit, and didn't receive a call from Trump's campaign ahead of time.
"I would think, if you are very concerned about Flint and the people, you would contact the mayor and want to have a conversation about what's going on - so that puts a question mark in my mind that I wasn't even contacted or notified about something today about something tomorrow," says Weaver.
Weaver is in Washington D.C. and will not be in Flint during Trump's visit.
"I had not been notified by Donald Trump or his people ... finally, this afternoon, a call to my press person, but I did not know. These plans were made without contacting me."
Her reaction when she was contacted by Trump's campaign?
"That's kind of not the way it's supposed to go. I wish that he had come when things were in more dire straits - maybe before we had even received help -- when the debates were going on. We were crying out for a long time."
While, Michigan State Senate Democratic Leader Jim Ananich, a Flint resident, saying he isn't impressed that Trump is just now making an appearance in his city after the debacle of the water crisis.
"The people in Flint, we need a lot more than photo ops, we need resources to come to our community to make sure that the pipes are replaced," said Ananich. "We need to make sure that this never happens to anyone, anywhere else again in this state or across the country."
Ananich said Michigan needs serious people with serious solutions about urban decay. "We need people coming here - bringing solutions, bringing policies that positively affect these people's lives."