The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has been making national headlines for a solid two weeks now (and poisoning residents for much longer). Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency and asked for federal help. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have spoken out forcefully about the issue. But for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, Flint was more of a chance to burnish his credentials as an empty suit who depends on canned talking points:
“I’d love to give you a better answer on it,” Rubio said. “It’s just not an issue we’ve been quite frankly fully briefed or apprised of in terms of the role the governor has played and the state has played in Michigan on these sorts of issues.”
Rubio went on to say that he’s unable to give “a deeply detailed answer on what the right approach should be, other than to tell you that in general I believe the federal government’s role in some of these things [is] largely limited unless it involves a federal jurisdictional issue.”
This is a case where “I haven’t been fully briefed” boils down to “I haven’t been following the national news.” And Rubio’s fallback canned talking point of “federal government out” is especially great since the federal government has refused to give as much aid as Gov. Snyder (again, a Republican) wants.
We’re talking about government action poisoning a generation of a city’s children. Marco Rubio hasn’t been fully briefed, so he just doesn’t know what to tell you.