it is in the babies and the school children of flint. lead is devastating to the human body and children builds up swiftly in kidneys and bones and livers and brains and the effects irreversible. in just a matter of months, the children and babies of flint, michigan became two to three times more likely to show elevated levels of lead in their bodies coming after the state of michigan allowed flint to change the source of its drinking water without taking precautions. this is the story of an epa whistleblower who reported on high levels of lead in flint only to have the government of flint, michigan brand him a rogue employee, the story of a local doctor who proved that flint kids were getting sick from drinking the lead in their new water only to have the government of in issue gan tell reporters she had spliced and diced the numbers and that she was wrong. it's the story of the mcarthur genius award writtening drinking water expert from virginia tech who dropped everything this summer and drove 15 hours trait 120 flint, michigan so that he could test the water himself and who found high lead levels in flint's new water only to have the state dismiss him as beak a traveling cradle sister. it's the story of the new mayor of flint who took the drastic step this month of declaring a state of emergency in her city saying the town and the kids need help, need it urgently and if they going to recover from what's been done to them. and it is most definitely the story off michigan governor rick snyder who was the boss of the state appointed emergency managers in flint and who was the boss of the state environmental agency that bunked and botch the its way to a full-blown national crisis. the same agency that told the public there's no broad problem with the water in flint. and that everyone should just relax. the science of what went so wrong in flint is actually easy enough to understand. flint had been getting its water pumped from detroit. it's about an hour's drive away. to save money, flint's state appointed emergency manager decided to stop buying great lakes water from detroit and instead start sourcing the drinking water from the local flint river. then in april 2014, they made the switch. lots of places get their drinking water from rivers. it's not inherently more dangerous but river water does tend to be saltier than lake water. thus, it tends to be more core rose sib. you're supposed to treat the river water so it doesn't corrode the pipes because if it corrodes the pipes then it will cause them to leach out the lead that's holding them together. people who end up drinking the lead, it will make them sick. in the case of children in particular, it can permanently lower their iqs, contribute to emotional and behavioral problems that follow them the rest of their lives. but don't worry, you can avoid all ha if you just treat the river water properly to prevent corrosion. that is what the state of in issue gan didn't do. the governor's administration let flint make the switch without the safeguards. then the snyder administration ignored the early warning signs and let the moms and dads and babies an of flint keep on drink hag water for months. even with michigan newspapers and michigan public radio and the aclu all spilling this news nonstop, it's not been clear how far governor snyder is willing to go to clean up from this mess his administration has made. it was enough that rachel on this show addressed governor snyder directly. watch this. >> governor, the water of flint, michigan has been poisoned. and this -- let me say here for a second, i think the resistance to this being seen as a national story is because people think of lead as being a long-term infrastructure problem. things went bad in that old city that needs work. if you want to make an analogy to personal health, this is not like something coming due after you've had bad diet and no exercise for 20 years. this is the personal health equivalent of having been shot. this is not something that went bad over a long period of time. this is they flipped a switch to turn off one spigot last april and turn on a different spit got and the one they turned on poisoned the kids. the kids of flint mish have been poisoned by a policy decision. all at once. the town has been poisoned. under your watch, governor. through the actions and inactions of people who report to you and the people who you appointed. the emergency manager who signed that international order to get ready for drinking from the river he reported directly to the governor and to no one else. the emergency manager that so would the pipeline reported directly to governor snyder. the agency that did not tell flint how to do this safely and ignored the fast rising lead levels in the water and disparages first the whistleblower and then the profess her and then the local doctor who all tried to represent, that agency reported to and continues to report only to rick snyder, the governor of michigan. >> clear enough? the science of how flint, michigan came to have its water in its kids poisoned is clear. the state failed to take the reprecautions it should have taken 37 but the politics of how much help flint gets and who gets held accountable for what happened, that part is not so obvious. over the past few days, governor snyder has addressed the flint water crisis directly. last week he told a local tv station his greatest challenge this year was "flint with their water situation." this morning we saw the headline with governor snyder listing the flint water crisis as his biggest disappointment of 2015 and then late today, the story took a turn. late today, a bipartisan tack force commissioned by governor snyder made a preliminary report in a letter that task force, told the governor that the state's own environmental agency bears the primary responsibility for what went wrong. the task force members say they have more work left to do but they told the governor in boldfaced type that responsibility and accountability cannot wait. and late today, governor snyder cited that letter as he announced the resignation of the director of the environmental agency that failed to protect flint's water. then the spokesperson for that agency, the one who told the public to relax about flint's water, he also resigned. and it seems it's not over yet. the governor says there will be more news yet to come. in a statement posted this afternoon, he says "changes in leader had and staff are not enough." he's directing state agencies to work with the outside scientist who have tried to help flint, the same scene at this times the state disparaged just weeks ago. the governor had been telling us he sent the michigan state police to meet with flint about an emergency response. now he says he has called flint's new mayor and plans to meet with her so they can talk about the ways the state can offer more assistance and the governor himself apologized. "i want the flint community to know how very sorry i am that this happened." so that's big news. on this outrage of a story from michigan. resignations, promises of change an apology from the governor, big, big news. but meanwhile, the children of flint, michigan are poisoned because of choices made by city officials who were not elected by the people of flint but instead were installed by governor snyder. so we know he's sorry. we know who's resigned. what we don't know is what the governor is willing to do to fix this problem that his administration caused. does flint get the help it needs to make sure the pipes carrying its water are not leeching any more lead into sippy cups and baby bottles and drinking glasses? will governor snyder be held personally accountable? will there be a federal response? will the families and children of flint be okay? joining us now is congressman dan killed deof flint, michigan. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> do you see these resignations and this an pol from the governor as some sort of turning point? >> it's certainly acknowledgement of responsibility which is a step in the right direction but whether people resign, are fired, or apologize, that all may be appropriate but what is necessary is that the governor take action now to make sure that the effect that this lead has had on these children can be mitigated. there are things that can done to overcome to offset, perhaps not to overcome but to offset the effect of lead. and the governor needs to step up and make it right by getting these kids the nutritional support that will minimize the effect of lead or at least mitigate the effect of lead on their future. the kind of educational support early childhood education, for example, can in part offset the developmental challenges that come with lead exposure. there are lots of other things that he can do. but it has to be more than just holding people accountable by having them resign. or making an apology. these are people. this is my hometown. these are people whose futures can have been negatively affected by this terrible mistake made by the state government and they need to do, are the state need to do everything that they possibly can do to make it right for the people of flint. they can't fix it completely. they can't undo it. but they can do what they can do. and it has to be much more than just an apology and much more than people losing their jobs. >> so talk to me a little bit about these families about your hometown. you know, obviously the month of december we've been in holiday season. people are home cooking. you think how many times you turn on the tap to do everything from wash the dishes to prepare the meals. and i just kept condering if you're meeting families and if they're talking to you as their representative about what they're facing in this moment. >> i go home every weekend and hear about it all the time from people. they're worried about their kids. they're worried about whether this lead exposure will be yet another hurdle that these kids in flint, michigan have to overcome to make their way in life. the city has already had a lot of struggles. we've lost 90% of our manufacturing jobs. half of the population. it's a very poor city. so in many ways, these kids have had the bad luck of being born in the wrong zip code and now through an act of the state government have yet another hurd to overcome. >> i want to ask you about that zip code thing for a second. just to point out it's both about these individual families but also obviously zip codes are also about housing and property values. so everything that you've talked about here in terms of the chags that flint as a city was already facing, now with this, i mean, so if i am a family and want to get out, what's the possibility of being able to sell my house right now? >> property values have fallen. we had the housing crisis across the country. the housing prices in flint had completely collapsed before that and went even further as a result of the housing crisis. so this is why this crisis while it clearly affects the health of these kids and the governor should step up and do something about that, it also hurts the already really damaged reputation of this community. i mean, how can we rebuild ourselves if we are known as a city that can't even deliver safe drinking water to its children? so while i think the state needs to act to offset the problem that be it caused, it also needs to look at the secondary effect of all this. we need help regrowing our economy. and the state now has an even greater moral responsibility, not just to deal with the health, not just to deal with the infrastructure, both are really critical but to help us rebuild our city by making sure we have all the help possible to overcome yet another big problem that the state government really put on the city of flint which already has been strugglinging. > congressman dan kill deof flint, michigan, we appreciate your time tonight. i know the that rachel is going to stay on the story. expect more calls from this show. >> thank you very much. >> coming up donald trump on a plane. no, really. donald trump kind of made some news today on a plane today in omaha, nebraska. more on that. stay with us. nus pressure, you need fast relief. alka-seltzer plus severe sinus congestion and cough liquid gels rush relief to your tough symptoms. to put you back in control. 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donald trump was asked about this earlier this evening at a press conference that he held on board his plane before an iowa rally. >> well, as you know, and even if you look tonight despite the bad weather, the place is packed. they just had it on television. we get by far the biggest crowds. will they show up for caucus? i think the answer is yes. as you know, we have sam clovis and chuck and they have incredible people under them. but you know, we're going to see what happens on february 1st. i really think all of those people and maybe even friends of theirs that weren't at the rallies or the speeches i think they're going to come out and caucus and we're going to have a very good victory. you know, we're going to have to see. >> there have been mixed reports about donald trump's ground game in iowa and new hampshire. the "new york times" noted last week his campaign appears to have no pollsters, no advertising team or research or voter contact operations. though we just found out mr. trump did get access to the rnc's enormous voter lists which gives his campaign data on more than 200 million people. if donald trump doesn't have a good ground game and if the old rules of presidential campaigning still apply apply, it's possible he could suffer a sudden collapse once people actually start voting. this has been an election seen in which all the old rules have seemed to go out the window. jeb bush spent more than $38 million on ads to languish in the single digits. donald trump has dominated the polls for months and not run a single tv ad. but that may be about to change. >> i'll be spending a minimum of $2 million a week and perhaps substantially more than that. >> jeb has spent $40 million. >> he hasn't spent $40 million. he's wasted $40 million. there's a big difference. jeb has wasted $40 million. >> so i'm going to be doing big ads in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. and they're going to be very substantial and i this i they're very well done. i've seen the first two or three of them. we're very broud of them. i don't think i need to spend anything and i'm very ploud of the fact that i've spent the least and have the best result. in other words, i spent here. a guy like bush spent $59 million and he's nowhere. and others likewise have spent millions of dollars and they're nowhere. if anybody goes after me, i will spend a lot of money against the people that go after me. >> donald trump has said before that he was going to start running ads. the ads never appeared. but if we are going to get 2 million a week income trump tv ads, we are entering a new phase of this election season. joining us is political correspondent kasie hunt. so nice to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> so donald trump is not wrong that he has managed perhaps the best free media presidential campaign in modern history. but what would -- what would the ads look like from him? >> that's still an open question at this point. the main question is he going to run biographical spots? we would divide it up into am i selling myself or trying to contrast with other candidates. attack ads have the potential to be brutal. we've seen just donald trump's free media attacks be pretty effective already. so i think an actual paid tv spot could potentially be deadly. >> a lot is being made of this idea of a ground game. we started with the kind of iowa snow. i'm reminded iowa unlike new hampshire, it's in part about turnout but also about what happens in those school gymnasiums in those spaces. trump's supporters are the kind of people who strike me as good cau caucusers. >> republican caucuses are a little bit different . the democrats have a little bit of a different process. >> as in pep rally. >> that's exactly what the trump campaign is trying to do. i was out in cedar rapids with the trump campaign a couple weeks ago. they have their volunteers going into the gymnasiums and the release strength is the rallies. the scale