title:  WATCH: Democrat Takes Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder To The Woodshed For Poisoned Flint Water
text: In one glorious opening statement, Rep. Elijah Cummings made it clear that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder should face prison time for the tragedy afflicting the city of Flint.As Snyder sat waiting to testify about his and his administration s role in the Flint water crisis that has poisoned residents since 2014, Cummings kicked off the grilling by making it clear to Snyder that if he were a corporate CEO he would be hit with criminal charges already.Cummings began by noting that the special prosecutor in the case has already said that public officials, including Snyder and members of his staff, face prosecution because they knew about the crisis and did nothing. We re here to investigate what possible crimes there are, anything [from] involuntary manslaughter or death that may have happened to some young person or old person because of this poisoning, to misconduct in office,  Special Investigator Todd Flood said last month.  We take this very seriously. Cummings then read emails from top level members of Snyder s staff revealing that the administration knew of the crisis as far back as October 2014   shortly after the emergency manager Snyder appointed to control Flint switched the city s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which had not been used for decades because it was unsafe for human consumption, all to save a minuscule amount of money in the budget. Now the crisis will cost Michigan billions of dollars to fix.In fact, The October email proved that Snyder had a chance to get ahead of the issue before the crisis became a huge deal because his Chief of Staff was advised to switch back to the Detroit water system as swiftly as possible to avoid the very crisis that has unfolded over the last few months.Cummings then laid into Snyder for allowing an  entire generation of children  to get lead poisoning which will cause serious health problems that will affect them for the rest of their lives. There is no doubt in my mind that if a corporate CEO did what Governor Snyder s administration has done, he would be hauled up on criminal charges. There will now be an entire generation of children who suffer from brain damage, learning disorders, and many other horrible effects of lead poisoning that were afflicted on them by Gov. Snyder s administration.Here s the video via YouTube.While questioning Snyder, Cummings said he found it  hard to believe  that he didn t know about the crisis until it was too late. once again pointing out that members of his senior staff knew in late 2014 that there was a serious problem brewing. After much back and forth about whether or not Snyder actually discussed the Flint crisis with his Chief of Staff, Snyder made a desperate effort to blame the state Department of Environmental Quality and the state Department of Health and Human Services. But Cummings refused to let Snyder off the hook. It seems like there are two basic possibilities. Either your chief of staff told you about these concerns and you did nothing, or he didn t tell you and you are an absentee governor. Here s that video via YouTube.Make no mistake, Rick Snyder is in the hot seat today and he s getting his ass handed to him right now. And he deserves it just as much as he deserves a pair of metal bracelets and an orange jumpsuit.Featured image via video screen capture