Michigan Governor Apologizes for Flint Water Catastrophe.
GOV. RICK SNYDER (R), MICHIGAN: To you, the people of Flint, I say tonight as I have before, I am sorry and I will fix it.</s>CUOMO: But it hasn't been fixed. That was Michigan's governor apologizing, talking to the people of Flint, for the enormous health crisis that's been going on for years. Lead-contaminated water. Not the only problem facing Michigan. In Detroit, teachers are staging sickouts, 83 public schools closing for the day because of what the teachers say are desperate situations. President Obama heading to the Motor City today. We have Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat from Michigan, joining us now. It's good to have you, Senator. Very hard times in your home state. President Obama going to Detroit to talk about the automotive resurgence there.</s>SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D), MICHIGAN: Right.</s>CUOMO: Is that a little off message, considering the grave hardships in that state?</s>STABENOW: Well, first ever all, Chris, we have seen a great turnaround in the auto industry, and that's the good news. But what is happening in Flint is really outrageous. And you're right on. It's not done. It's almost been two years. And since the very beginning, when people complained about the smell, the taste of the water, EPA did testing; and the governor attacked the EPA for being wrong. Then a Flint pediatrician found out there were higher lead levels in children. They attacked the pediatrician. And it was only, finally, after there was great public attention on it, that they even took this seriously at all. And today, you still can't drink the water. You can't bathe your children. One gentlemen said, you know, you can't take a shower in bottled water. I'm still trying to make sure every low-income mom who's mixing baby formula is not doing it in that dirty water, even though I've got a commitment since last fall to make sure every mom has ready to feed formula, there's been no sense of urgency on behalf of the state to make sure that moms know this. So this is really outrageous.</s>CUOMO: Well, look, you know, it's easy to say now, right? Now it's all over the place. Now it has to be owned. The governor saying he's sorry. The problem is that you have all these lawyers and people getting together to sue, because you should have known. It should have been there, and you have President Obama going to talk about the automotive resurgence. Isn't it true that, not until GM said, "We can't use this water. It's rusting our parts" was there anything addressed publicly. And only then, GM got switched to a different line, and the Flint people had to keep still drinking the same water. How do you justify something like that, Senator?</s>STABENOW: You don't, Chris. There's no way to justify any of this. And I have to say, in this particular case, every single person who made a decision, every single decision was made by the governor in this state government. Every single one. And you're absolutely right on this. Now, there were people that put forth the testing information this summer to try to get it out there. The pediatrician, others talking about it, all of us that were going to them and saying what do you need? There's a problem here, let us help. No sense of urgency whatsoever. Now, right now, even though that -- we're glad the president is in Michigan, but I'm going to be leaving after talking to you to go meet with the point person he's put in charge from Health and Human Services and the mayor of Flint so that we can focus on what we can do federally, but it doesn't take the place of the fact that the state government has the legal and moral responsibility. They just announced over a half-a-billion-dollars surplus in the state. And there's not a major commitment to making sure dollars go to fix this quickly. And it's -- I continue to be stunned as we look at the slow walking of the state on this.</s>CUOMO: Look, it's always easy to point fingers, especially in the aftermath.</s>STABENOW: There's a lot to point right now, I have to tell you.</s>CUOMO: I understand that. But, you know, also, the federal government had a big hand in this. They did testing early on. They came up with obviously wrong conclusions. The question...</s>STABENOW: They came up with right conclusions, and the state rejected it.</s>CUOMO: No, but in the time line -- in the time line, you had the feds saying that the water was OK to drink. And let me tell you, if the feds did believe it wasn't safe to drink, I don't know why they didn't make that information public. But let me ask you. When did you find out, Senator? When did this come to your desk?</s>STABENOW: This came last summer as I was talking with community leaders. We went to the state. Everyone assured us and assured the people in the community that this was safe. And then meeting with the pediatrician in September when it became clear to me that, in fact, higher lead levels were there for children, I immediately went into action to make sure that low-income moms were not mixing their baby formula with this water. I went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get a commitment early to be able to bring in extra dollars for ready-to-feed formula. In the fall the state said that everybody had ready-to-feed formula who wanted it. They had no sense of urgency. They weren't doing any outreach on this. I spent the entire fall trying to deal with what is the only thing that can be done to mitigate what is happening to these children, and that's better nutrition. Because once the lead is in your body, it never leaves.</s>CUOMO: Right. But that's -- look, that's the best you can do. Lead poisoning is horrible; it's pernicious. We all understand that. You've got to change the pipes. That's what everybody's saying right now.</s>STABENOW: No question.</s>CUOMO: You switched them back onto the Detroit water system. The federal government did not declare this a disaster. It's an emergency but not a disaster. So that means they're not going to get as much resources. You have to change the pipes. It's really expensive. You can't even put floors on your schools. Despite the automotive resurgence, the money is not getting to where it needs to be, is it?</s>STABENOW: Chris, we have a situation where state government is controlling all of those issues you're talking about. We'll back them up and support them. But the new pipes, they can make the decisions. They fund and control the drinking water revolving loan fund. You're absolutely right. It needs to be new pipes. Unfortunately, right now, this is something that is supervised, owned, operated, administered by state government, as it does -- as it is in most states. We want to support them. This is not about just passing the buck. It's about getting to the place where decisions are made so we can fix this for the families of Flint. So I'm going to be there. We're all going to be there to do everything we can to help. But if the state will not step up and do what needs to be done financially for this community, it's not going to happen. So we've got to push for a sense of urgency and more than just lip service and handing out bottled water. You're absolutely right. In the end, it's about the pipes. It's about the pipe going to the home, not just the main line. And it's a major infrastructure effort that needs to go on to fix this.</s>CUOMO: Well, to be sure, Senator, it's got the attention of everybody who matters now, certainly the media. This is not going to go away. We'll be there every step of the way. A state -- U.S. senator has got a big voice and big jurisdiction. We look forward to seeing what you do. We'll stay on this.</s>STABENOW: Absolutely. Absolutely.</s>CUOMO: Thank you, senator.</s>STABENOW: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: Good luck to you and the people of Michigan.</s>STABENOW: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: Mick.</s>PEREIRA: The family of a freed American prisoner are eagerly awaiting his return to the U.S. after being released by Iran. One his close friends joins us with reaction, next.