--- title: Clinton and Sanders: Michigan Governor Should Resign description: The Democratic debate in Flint began in agreement as both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders called on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign. canonical: https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T01:44:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:25.137Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton and Sanders: Michigan Governor Should Resign og:description: The candidates agreed that the governor should leave office over the Flint water crisis og:url: https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49ea3d887b0baa1f/6988806e2dce01e0de9e8118/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders speak at the same time during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton and Sanders: Michigan Governor Should Resign twitter:description: The candidates agreed that the governor should leave office over the Flint water crisis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49ea3d887b0baa1f/6988806e2dce01e0de9e8118/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Clinton and Sanders Call on Michigan Governor to Resign > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 7, 2016 1:44 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders speak at the same time during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint, MI on March 6, 2016. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders speak at the same time during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint, MI on March 6, 2016. Jim Young—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 7, 2016 1:44 AM UTC Sunday’s [Democratic debate in Flint](http://time.com/4248784/clinton-sanders-flint-debate/) began in agreement as both [Hillary Clinton ](http://time.com/4248428/hillary-clinton-michigan-populist/)and [Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4244244/bernie-sanders-super-tuesday-speech-transcript-full-text/) called on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign over his role in the [city’s water crisis](http://time.com/4188328/the-poisoning-of-an-american-city/). “The governor of this state should understand his dereliction of duty was irresponsible. He should resign,” Vermont Sen. Sanders said, a call he has made before. Then former Secretary of State Clinton agreed, the first time that she has said Snyder should resign over the lead in Flint’s water. “The governor should resign or be recalled, and we should support the efforts of citizens to achieve that,” she said. Snyder took to Twitter during the debate to defend himself: > [](https://twitter.com/onetoughnerd/status/706646480648536065) > [](https://twitter.com/onetoughnerd/status/706647092035452928) > [](https://twitter.com/onetoughnerd/status/706647792417165313) Sanders connected the water crisis back to his favorite topic on the stump: income inequality. “We need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure,” he said. “Our water systems, our waste water plants, our roads and our bridges. The wealthiest country in the history of the world has got to get its priorities right, take care of the people, no more tax breaks for billionaires.” Clinton also said she would support consequences for public officials, and that she would launch an investigation into who knew about the water contamination, and when. “People should be held accountable, wherever that leads,” she said. Both candidates were met with loud cheers from the Flint audience. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/"},"headline":"Clinton and Sanders Call on Michigan Governor to Resign","datePublished":"2016-03-07T01:44:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:25.137Z","description":"The candidates agreed that the governor should leave office over the Flint water crisis","url":"https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Michigan","Bernie Sanders","Flint"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49ea3d887b0baa1f/6988806e2dce01e0de9e8118/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49ea3d887b0baa1f/6988806e2dce01e0de9e8118/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders speak at the same time during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint","caption":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders speak at the same time during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint, MI on March 6, 2016.","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249129/democratic-debate-flint-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/","name":"Clinton and Sanders Call on Michigan Governor to Resign"}}]}] ```