Trump Victorious, But Snyder Sidesteps WWJ Question About Who He Supports In Presidential Race
FLINT (WWJ) Speaking live on WWJ 950 on the day he's meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the Flint water crisis, Gov. Rick Snyder side stepped a question about who he supports in the presidential race.
"It's been an interesting thing on the national political scene for president this year. But I've stayed focused in on issues like Flint - and Detroit," Snyder told WWJ's Roberta Jasina and Tom Jordan. "Obviously we've got important things here in Michigan that I view as my priority so I'm keeping my head down, working on those."
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was resoundingly victorious Tuesday in Indiana, effectively pushing Ted Cruz to drop out of the race. It makes Trump the undisputed front-runner for the Republican nomination for president.
Many fellow Republicans have said they will not support millionaire New York developer and TV personality Trump, whom stalwarts believe is undermining a party platform of social and economic conservatism that was decades in the making.
Snyder did not say Wednesday if he'll back Trump; when he visited WWJ 950 in December he bristled at any notion he could be compared to his fellow Republican.
"Just as it's not right to lump people together, lumping me with Donald Trump just because we're both Republicans is not a good thing," Snyder said at the time, a time when Trump had just proposed a plan to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.
While he didn't want to talk Trump today, the governor did want to talk about Flint, saying "we've made some strides."
Snyder said he has tried to get federal aid for Flint. "I think they've basically said that's not allowed under federal law. Again, they've given us an answer, we've appealed, they've confirmed that answer. So let's look at other options. Let's just not walk about from the question of how we can work together. Let's just find more innovative and thoughtful ways to push ahead to try to help the people of Flint."
In advance of his visit to Flint today where he'll meet with Snyder and speak at Northwestern High School, Obama's spokesman has said the president is troubled by the fact tainted water was delivered to such an economically disadvantaged community.
One member of Congress, Dan Kildee, says the president needs to persuade lawmakers to give federal money to the city, and he's hopeful Snyder can persuade him on that front. Snyder has said there is federal drinking water aid he hopes to tap on behalf of Flint.
"If he (Snyder) can have an effect on them, maybe we can get the federal side of this done," said Kildee, D-Flint, who introduced a bill in February calling for about $700 million in federal aid. Federal disaster aid has not been forthcoming because Flint is considered a man made disaster, not an unavoidable one.
Snyder and his administration have come under fire for their handling of the Flint water situation, after residents decried the fact they got no action for nearly two years on many complaints to the state about cloudy, dirty water. Pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha fought hard on behalf of patients who turned up with mysterious rashes and other ailments. She blamed the water; state officials at the time told her she was wrong.
Eventually, a problem was acknowledged and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has taken much of the blame for not requiring corrosion control when the city switched from Detroit to Flint River water in 2014. Such control was necessary to keep lead from leaching from old water pipes into the public water system. The switch to Flint River water was approved by an emergency city manager as a money saving measure.
Obama is due to receive a briefing on the federal effort to assist in the cleanup and to hear directly from Flint residents about the toll the contamination has had on their health and their lives.
Snyder told WWJ the president's visit is a positive, a sign that federal and state official are working together on solutions.
When can Flint residents turn on their tap water and not worry?
"I've said many, many times that's not something to speculate on," Snyder said. "And that's not something for a governor just to say. It needs to be based on scientific and technical information."