President Barack Obama drank filtered Flint, Michigan tap water to show the water is safe to drink after the city’s water supply faced a contamination crisis.
After a briefing on the federal response to the city’s lead water crisis, Obama was asked by a reporter to drink the glass of Flint tap water and the president obliged, the Associated Press reports.
“This used a filter,” Obama said. “The water around this table was Flint water and it just confirms what we know scientifically, which is, if you’re using a filter, if you’re installing it, then Flint water at this point is drinkable.”
Obama is visiting Flint to show the federal government’s continued commitment to the city. The president, who declared a state of emergency in Flint in January following revelations of lead contamination in the water, came to visit the city after eight-year-old Amariyanna Copeny who him a letter asking Obama to speak to residents in person. “A meeting from you or your wife would really lift people’s spirits,” Copeny wrote.
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