Steve Harvey (Photo by Angela George)
Update, 4:15 p.m. Thursday: Flint Mayor Karen Weaver sent a letter to comic Steve Harvey on Thursday demanding an apology for flip remarks he recently made about the Flint water crisis.
The mayor's statement, posted on the city website, says:
As Mayor of the City of Flint, and someone who has been on your show and spoken with you personally about the Flint Water Crisis, I was deeply saddened by your comments about our city. While I feel it was not meant to be an intentional hurt or insult against the citizens of this community, it was.
We are still going through many hardships and challenges caused by the poisoning of our city. To make a joke out of a tragedy such as this was in very poor taste, especially coming from someone of your stature.
While we are making progress in replacing lead tainted service lines, we still have to use filters and remain on bottled water. As Mayor, I would appreciate, on behalf of the citizens of this community, a public apology. I would love to sit and discuss with you the status of where we are today.
In a statement to NBC 25/Fox 66 in Mid-Michigan, Harvey defends his comments:
This morning callers and I were cracking jokes about the Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the Golden State Warriors. I'm a huge Cavs fan.
The caller and I were talking trash about our teams and cities. "SIMPLY TRASH TALKING ABOUT SPORTS".
I made a joke directed at him, as he is from Flint, a city for which I have great affection and respect.So much so that I devoted a full hour on my daytime talk show to raising awareness for the Flint water crisis.
I also pressed then candidate, Hilary Clinton, to offer solutions to what I called one of the great catastrophes of modern times.
The and the caller laughed as my joke was taken in the context it was offered.
Original article, Thursday morning:
Steve Harvey isn't always funny.
Harvey, host of a morning radio talk show, pushed back against a caller from Flint who said that Cleveland didn't "deserve jack" after the Cavaliers lost game five of the NBA finals. Harvey, who once lived in Ohio, is a Cavaliers fan.
"You from Flint?," Harvey asked, according to Bob Johnson of MLive.
"That's why y'all ain't even got clean water. When was the last time you touched water and it didn't have lead in it?"
"He gone call in and say Cleveland don't deserve jack and he over there bathing in all that silver water."
He then piled on:
"Go have yourself a nice glass of brown water!"
Harvey's co-hosts could be heard telling him that he should apologize.
"I wasn't talking about the city of Flint," Harvey told his co-hosts, "I was talking about him."
Harvey continued on to say, "He gone call in and say Cleveland don't deserve jack and he over their bathing in all that silver water."
The caller was still on the line at this point and told Harvey he was Dee from Flinttown.
Before taking the next caller Harvey told the caller there was "one more thing."
"Go ahead," the caller said.
"Enjoy your nice brown glass of water," Harvey said.
