After the White House Correspondents’ dinner, much of the attention was focused on Michelle Wolf’s comment on Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and not the very last six words of her act, “Flint still doesn’t have clean water.”
"Flint still doesn't have clean water." – @michelleisawolf https://t.co/CWHAZyadhD#WHCD #WHCA #WhiteHouseCorrespondentsDinner pic.twitter.com/95MUTWpn6f
— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) April 29, 2018
Flint is one of those stories that garnered lots of media attention when it first broke, but was soon out of the news cycle. So what is the latest on the Flint water crisis four years after it began?
Somewhere, Michelle Wolf is kicking herself for not saying Flint's water system has the perfect smokey eye. Maybe then media would have generated sympathy for a city that hasn't had clean drinking water in over 1,100 days.#WHCD
— Charlotte Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) April 29, 2018
MLive-The Flint Journal reports that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s spokesperson responded with:
“All state scientists and independent scientists who have collected their own samples and data agree that Flint’s water system is testing well beneath the federal standards for lead and that the city’s water is in fact of better quality than many other U.S. cities of similar size and age… Inaccurate comments from comedians will not help the city move forward.“
Then, Flint’s Mayor issued a comment Wednesday, May 2, suggesting Wolf was helping the city by ‘talking and thinking about Flint.’ Weaver “does not want the city to be forgotten because the crisis is not yet over.”
Back in April, Governor Snyder announced the state would end free bottled water service for Flint residents, but The Detroit News reports this may have come too early. Three weeks before Snyder’s decision, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had warned the city still has “significant deficiencies” with its water system oversight and operations.
As CNN reports, “although government officials claim the city’s tap water is back to safe levels, residents still do not trust that the problem has been fixed for good.”
On the same night that Wolf was addressing the WHCD, Donald Trump was actually in Michigan. While he covered lots of topics, he didn’t mention Flint at all.
Trump held a rally in Michigan this weekend, and spoke for nearly 80 minutes without once mentioning Flint's water crisis. That wasn't an accident. It was spitting in the face of people who need our help.
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) May 1, 2018
RT if you agree that it is an absolute DISGRACE that Trump was in Michigan last week & NOT ONCE did he mention the drinking water CRISIS in Flint.
He spends MILLIONS on golfing every weekend but does not even acknowledge that American families are living in 3rd world conditions. pic.twitter.com/CdPtZs1A4Q
— The Hummingbird ? (@SaysHummingbird) May 4, 2018
Want to hear more up to date information on the water in Flint? Below is a recent interview from NPR.
Anyway, here’s a good update from a few days ago on Flint: https://t.co/nVOLCyTeCz
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) April 29, 2018