Joe Biden Still Backs Gretchen Whitmer and Fails in His Attempt to Blame Trump for Michigan Dam Failures

AP Photo, File
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Β (AP Photo, File)

 

Joe Biden gave a new interview where he was praising Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for doing extraordinary work in Michigan, both regarding the pandemic and the recent tragedy of massive floods they are contending with in numerous communities. Biden said how President Trump, ”has really made it an effort to do everything he possibly could to make it more difficult for (Whitmer) to take care of the public — including these dams that broke.’’

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So the localized failings of these dams are something we can just blithely pass off onto the White House, and excuse away any culpability of the governor and her own administration. Well, slight problem with this attempt — facts are blocking the flow of those accusations. Much like when Whitmer tried to state Trump was blocking COVID relief aid to Michigan, only to have it later revealed her administration had failed to even file initial paperwork with FEMA, once again the cause of her problems can be traced directly back to her.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed by residents of Midland County, Michigan regarding the failure of the Edenville Dam, which caused massive flood damage to property and land in that region. In the complaint, it cites how failures of local governments to address long term maintenance concerns and requested repair work led to the dam failure.

β€œFor decades, federal regulators had demanded changes to the design of the Edenville Dam to improve its ability to withstand flooding, and federal regulators had warned since at least 1993 that the dam failed to meet safety requirements,” reads the complaint.

Decades, you say. Huh – difficult to see how the blame for this can be placed on a President during his first term when the Feds have been looking directly at these dams and telling Michigan officials to fix the issues. As if that was not enough to assess culpability to those in the State House, the Lady From Lansing has more blame to accept, this time for the actions of her Attorney General, Dana Nessel. If the name sounds familiar it is because it was Nessel just last week glomming television attention by barking loudly about President Trump not wearing a mask while touring a Ford automotive plant.

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This oddly bitter response from her may have been a desperate attempt at misdirection. Less than one month before the floods it was the AG office that successfully sued to force the dam owners to retain very high water levels in the attached Wixom Lake. The issue was over the population of freshwater mussels. The dam owners mentioned during the case it was concerned over the possibility of flooding.

The company took steps to lower them because β€œmisoperation could pose a significant risk to the Village of Sanford, Northwood University, the City of Midland, and other downstream areas,” according to a lawsuit last month.

There is also the issue of the state being severely understaffed regarding the oversight of its dam network. As the Bridgemi.com website attests, not only does the state have some of the most lax flood control restrictions and design standards in the nation, but ”Michigan has three staffers who are charged with overseeing more than 1,000 dams, records show.’’

So we have dam owners blaming the state, state lawyers blaming the owners, and all the while Gretchen Whitmer and Joe Biden blaming President Trump. Yea, slight problem; the damn was cited by the federal government and had its license revoked over these very flooding safety concerns. That took place in 2018. During the Trump administration.

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Now we need to ask ourselves — if wh become inundated with a Biden/Whitmer administration exactly who will be left to blame when Donald Trump is not around to have the buck passed to for responsibility?

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