Clinton, Sanders Agree to 2016 Presidential Debate in Flint

FLINT, MI – Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who both have lambasted Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder for his administration’s handling of the Flint water catastrophe, agreed Wednesday to debate in Flint on March 6, two days before Michigan’s primary election.

Clinton called for a debate in Flint on Saturday, saying the spotlight of the 2016 presidential campaign would keep the national focus on the water crisis in Flint, where an unknown number of children and others have been exposed to lead in their drinking water supply.

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The debate in Flint is one of three more sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. The two candidates will debate Thursday in New Hampshire in advance of that state’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Sanders and Clinton have agreed to be appear together on the PBS News Hour on Feb.11 and at a March 9 Univision debate. The other two of the new debates will be held April and May, at times and places to be determined.

Clinton barely squeaked past Sanders in the Iowa Caucuses Monday. The two candidates got an almost even share of delegates in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

In calling for the debate Saturday, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta said a debate in Flint would “lift up the historic underlying issues that Flint and too many other predominantly low income communities of color across America are struggling with every day.”

Sanders has also lambasted state officials. Last month, he called on Snyder to resign over “his administration’s failure to deal with the lead-poisoning that has sickened thousands of children in Flint.”

In a statement released Jan 16, Sanders said Snyder knew about the lead in Flint’s water, but did nothing to implement corrosion controls that would have stopped toxic lead metal from leaching into the drinking water supply.

He went on to say the problems with Flint’s water date to a decision nearly two years ago by the Snyder-appointed emergency manager that was appointed by Snyder.

Flint turned off the taps to water from Detroit, which gets its supply from Lake Huron, and switched to water from the more Flint River in a money-saving move while under the control of an emergency manager in 2014. The corrosive water caused lead in aging pipes to leach.

The city switched back to water from Lake Huron in October, a month after a blistering report showed the proportion of Flint children with above-average levels of lead in their blood had nearly doubled since switch.

On Wednesday, hearings into the Flint lead poisoning got under way in Washington, DC, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Congressional interrogators called the crisis a failure at every level of government, and blasted state officials and federal regulators for their failure to respond to warnings about the rising lead levels, the Detroit Free Press reported.

» Photos by Gage Skidmore via Flickr