Flint water crisis: Congress members say Governor Rick Snyder should resign

Governor Snyder spoke before a Congressional panel on Thursday.

Congress members have called for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign over the Flint water crisis. (Getty Images)

In a testy congressional hearing, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder spread blame around for the Flint water crisis, condemning bureaucracy throughout all levels of government. This did not please many of the lawmakers on the panel and the governor was asked to resign during the hearing.

Governor Snyder was testifying before the US House Government Oversight and Reform Committee about the lead contamination that has devastated Flint, poisoning many children.

Environmental Protection Agency official Susan Hedman resigned over the crisis and many have called for the governor to do the same. On Thursday, those calls came from federal lawmakers.

Representative Matt Cartwright, Democrat from Pennsylvania, said Mr Snyder should resign over the crisis.

"I've had about enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies," Mr Cartwright said to the governor. "Governor Snyder, plausible deniability only works when it's plausible, and I'm not buying that you didn't know about any of this until October 2015. You were not in a medically induced coma for a year."

Mr Snyder maintained that while his office deserves plenty of blame, there is plenty more to go around. He said that each time there were warning about Flint's water, "career bureaucrats" said the water was safe and "these people that made these terrible decisions that showed a clear lack of common sense."

Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, also called for Mr Snyder's resignation during the hearing. The two congress members join Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and thousands of others across the country in calling for the governor to step down.

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