Michael Moore rips Michigan Gov. Snyder: Flint 'was a hate crime' based on GOP 'race hatred'

Filmmaker Michael Moore tore into Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and his administration on Friday over his handling of the water crisis in Flint.

"They did it because it's a black city, a poor city," Moore told Real Time host Bill Maher. "They wouldn't do this to Bloomfield Hills or Ann Arbor or Grosse Pointe. This was a hate crime -- it was a hate crime based on this race hatred of this particular party."

The poisoning of the city's water supply, Moore argued, was not about lead or even infrastructure.

"This was a decision made by a Republican governor to give the rich in Michigan a $1 billion tax break," he said. "And then when they had $1 billion less dollars in the budget, it was like 'OK, what are we gonna do? We gotta cut back on services -- anybody got any ideas?'"

However, Moore also criticized President Barack Obama's visit to the city earlier this month.

"I'm very upset that President Obama went there and drank a glass of water and said, 'It's OK everybody to drink the water,'" he said. "It was just a stunning, sad thing to see happen."

"Because he took the light off of it?" Maher asked.

"Completely," Moore said. "No one's gonna worry about it [anymore] ... It's really shameful that he did that."

Watch the interview, as posted online on Friday, below.