ABC, CBS Whack Bachmann with PolitiFact, Have Spared Obama Similar Drubbing
ABC and CBS have both recently wielded PolitiFact as a club to bash Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), yet in the 29 months since President Barack Obama took office – despite 49 “false” ratings in Obama’s PolitiFact file – the three broadcast networks have cited the fact-checking website only once to challenge the Democratic commander-in-chief.
ABC host George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday’s Good Morning America used PolitiFact as an excuse to badger Bachmann about her past statements, while CBS host Bob Schieffer on Sunday’s Face the Nation pressed the Republican presidential candidate to answer to a spate of PolitiFact judgments against her.
“But, as you make progress in this campaign, everything you say is going to get more scrutiny,” lectured Stephanopoulos. “And the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact has said you have the worst record of making false statements of any of the leading contenders.”
“A lot of your critics say you have been very fast and loose with the truth,” accused Schieffer. “You know, the PolitiFact, which is a website that won a Pulitzer, did an analysis of 23 statements that you made recently. Of these 23, only one they said was completely true. Seven they call ‘pants on fire’ kind of falsehoods. Four were ‘barely true’ and two were ‘half- true.’ How do you answer that criticism?”
Despite 39 “barely true” and 49 “false” ratings in Obama’s PolitiFact file, a Nexis search revealed just a single instance of ABC, CBS, or NBC referencing the fact-check website to dispute statements the Democratic president has made since he took office. Such “false” statements include claiming exports have doubled under his watch, the White House’s budget proposal would not add to the national debt, and his administration has never raised taxes. Click here to peruse all of Obama’s “false” rulings.
ABC’s This Week, which encourages viewers to visit PolitiFact.com, was the only broadcast news program to mention one of Obama’s negative PolitiFact judgments since the president took office. On the December 27, 2009 program, ABC’s Jake Tapper called out then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Obama’s broken promise to televise the health care negotiations on C-SPAN before backing away from the charge: “Now, PolitiFact labeled that a broken promise. I’m not, I’m a little bit more generous this Christmas spirit. You still have one more step in the negotiation process.”
A transcript of the relevant portions of the CBS Face the Nation segment, which aired on June 26, can be found below:
BOB SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you a question that you don’t have to answer. I’ll preface it that way. You’re a proud Christian. And my feeling had always been that people in public life, if they want to talk about their religion and what it means to them, fine. If they don’t, that’s their business. And you can say, none of your business. But I would like to ask you this question. You can answer it or not answer it. You said you had no idea of going into politics, but God called you to go into politics. If you want to answer that question, I’d like to know the circumstances of that.
Rep. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R-Minn.): Sure. I’ll be happy to. I am a Christian, as is my husband. I became a Christian when I was 16 years old. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. And since that time, I’ve been a person of prayer. And so when I pray, I pray believing that God will speak to me and give me an answer to that prayer. And so that’s what a calling is. If I pray, a calling means that I feel like I have a sense from God which, what direction I’m supposed to go.
SCHIEFFER: But did He, did God tell you he wanted you to run for the Minnesota State Senate or something like that?
BACHMANN: I prayed about that as well. And that’s really what that means. It means that I have a sense of assurance about the direction I think that God is speaking into my heart that I should go.
SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about something else. A lot of your critics say you have been very fast and loose with the truth. You know, the PolitiFact, which is a website that won a Pulitzer, did an analysis of 23 statements that you made recently. Of these 23, only one they said was completely true. Seven they call “pants on fire” kind of falsehoods. Four were “barely true” and two were “half- true.” How do you answer that criticism? Because here’s one of them. You know, you said on the record there had been only one offshore oil drilling permit during the Obama administration. And in fact, at that time, there had been 270. How do you explain that?
BACHMANN: Well, you know, I think that what’s clear more than anything is the fact that President Obama has not been issuing the permits that he should have been issuing on offshore drilling. That’s why we’re in the problems we’re in.
SCHIEFFER: But it has to be more than 300 now. At that time, there had been 200-and-something, and you said there had been only one.
BACHMANN: But, as far as drilling goes, we hadn’t been drilling what we need to. That’s why we just saw this week…
SCHIEFFER: But that’s different, isn’t it?
BACHMANN: Well, that’s why, this week, it’s ironic and sad that the president released all of the oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve because the president doesn’t have an energy policy.
SCHIEFFER: Do you think that was a good move?
BACHMANN: He has a politically correct environmental policy.
SCHIEFFER: Was that a good thing?
BACHMANN: It was a very bad move. It put, it has made the United States more vulnerable. There’s only a limited amount of oil that we have in the Strategic Oil Reserve. It’s there for emergencies. We do not, the emergency that we have is the fact that the president of the United States has failed to give the American people an energy policy. Here’s the good news that a lot of Americans don’t even realize. We are the number one energy-resource-rich nation in the world, according to the Congressional Research Service. But the president of the United States has unfortunately put American energy resources off limits. We need to open those up so we can bring down the price of gasoline at the pump. The president has it exactly wrong when it comes to energy.
SCHIEFFER: Just quickly, though, the original question I asked you is all of these statements that you have made that have later proven to be sort of true or totally false in some cases, what’s your answer when people say that to you? Do you feel you have misled people?
BACHMANN: No, I haven’t misled people at all. I think the question would be asked of President Obama, when you told the American people that, if we borrow $1 trillion from other countries and spend it on a stimulus, that we won’t have unemployment go above 8 percent, and today, as we are sitting here, it’s 9.1 percent and the economy is tanking – that is what’s serious. That’s a very serious statement that the president made. Did he mislead the American people? Not only did he mislead the American people, he’s caused our economy to go down to depths that we haven’t seen. That’s what’s serious.
SCHIEFFER: Again, I have to say, Congresswoman, I asked you a question and you, to my knowledge, I don’t believe you answered it. But I want to thank you. I know you’re very excited about what happened out in Iowa and we wish you the best. Hope to see you down the trail.
BACHMANN: Thank you, Bob.
SCHIEFFER: Thank you.
— Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
Bashing Bachmann: A Review of Liberal Media’s Most Obnoxious Attacks on the GOP Presidential Contender
Monday’s official announcement by Republican Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann that she is running for the GOP nomination for President could spawn a whole new round of frenzied attacks by the liberal media on the Tea Party favorite.
A review of the MRC’s archives shows a particular disdain for Bachmann coming from the likes of MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who once accused her of being a “zombie,” even going as far to ask her on live Election Night coverage if she “hypnotized?”
Not to be outdone, Matthews’s former colleague Keith Olbermann claimed Bachmann’s rise to Tea Party prominence was because she was one of the “evolutionary regressives” that appealed to, as actress Janeane Garafolo, put it, “the white power movement” of “tea-baggers” and “9-12ers.”
The following is a collection of some of the left-wing media’s most obnoxious quotes about the congresswoman:
Chris Matthews: “Congresswoman Bachmann, are you hypnotized tonight? Has someone hypnotized you? Because no matter what I ask you, you give the same answer. Are you hypnotized? Has someone put you under a trance tonight? That you give me the same answer no matter what question I put to you?”
Rep. Michele Bachmann: “I think the American people are the ones that are finally speaking tonight. We’re coming out of our trance….I think people are thrilled tonight. I imagine that thrill is probably maybe quite not so tingly on your leg anymore.” — From MSNBC’s election night coverage, November 2, 2010
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “Let’s listen to Michele Bachmann, your new boss. By the way she may be a zombie answering to somebody out there — Boris Karloff, I don’t know who’s giving her orders — but here she is on the debt ceiling. Let’s listen to her.”
Clip of Michele Bachmann: “I am not in favor of raising the debt ceiling. As a matter of fact, I have a petition that I’m urging people to sign at MichelePAC.com to urge their member of Congress not to raise the debt ceiling.”
Matthews: “Do you hear that? Who does she get her orders from?” — Matthews to GOP strategist Todd Harris on Hardball, January 4, 2011
And then there’s Michele Bachmann. I have said before that she has zombie-like qualities. I have never — I think she’s on hypnosis, but it turns out she just doesn’t know anything. What she did this weekend was say, basically, that we did not have slavery after the days of the Founding Fathers because they were so great, they managed somehow that we didn’t notice to get rid of slavery.
This is an incredible statement. The American people lost 600,000 lives in the Civil War, the worst catastrophe in our history, because of slavery continuing well past the mid-point of the 19th century. And this person – and you have to use the word “balloon head” — said that we had slavery eradicated in the days of the Founding Fathers. I have never heard anything — people like that should not be in politics. They didn’t go to first grade in history. What is this person doing on the national stage? Go home to grade school. Start around 3rd, and you might be able to catch up with the class. Anyway, she’s going out tonight as the spokesperson for the Tea Partiers. They must be really desperate. — Matthews on Hardball, January 25, 2011
“The Republican strategy was ‘Don’t show your ugly faces tonight.’ Today they kept all the crazies — all the crazies were in the closet….Michele Bachmann was not allowed to show up today. Joe Wilson from South Carolina was not there in evidence….[After clip of Republican participants using similar language] Look at these terms! ‘Start over,’ ‘clean sheet of paper,’ ”scrap the bill,’ ‘step by step,’ repeated like robotics….This is what it must be like at those North Korean assembly meetings where they all get together before the Dear Leader.” — Matthews discussing GOP’s health care summit with Barack Obama on Hardball, February 25, 2010
“It’s obvious to anybody who has eyes in this country that tea-baggers, the 9-12ers, these separatist groups that pretend that it’s about policy — they are clearly white-identity movements. They’re clearly white power movements. What they don’t like about the President is that he’s black….These people, who are also being led by the Glenn Becks, the Michelle Bachmans, the Rush Limbows [presumably Limbaugh], whomever, they are no different than any other white identity movement that’s part of our history.” –– Left-wing activist and actress Janeane Garofalo on HBO’s Real Time, October 2, 2009
“If racism is not the whole of the Tea Party, it is in its heart, along with blind hatred, a total disinterest in the welfare of others, and a full-flowered, self-rationalizing refusal to accept the outcomes of elections, or the reality of democracy, or the narrowness of their minds and the equal narrowness of their public support. On Saturday, that support came from evolutionary regressives like Michele Bachmann and Jon Voight. On a daily basis that support comes from the racists and homophobes of radio and television: the Michael Savages and the Rush Limbaughs.” — MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Countdown, March 22, 2010
“They’re attractive, especially to the Republican Party, which is not known as a party that really does well with the opposite sex. Usually they’re doughy white men, and I think they look on Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, as you know, MILFs. And I agree — they’re morons I’d like to forget.” — HBO’s Bill Maher on MSNBC’s Hardball, April 14, 2010
“You feel very strongly that government should be limited to what it is allowed to do in the Constitution. Now, the fact is, when we have to change things in society, government has had to provide incentives to capital to move into certain areas. Think about energy, think about the environment. Do you really believe that the federal government should offer no incentives, should undertake no planning with anything that doesn’t have to do with powers granted to them in the Constitution?” — -CNN American Morning co-anchor Ali Velshi to GOP candidate Michele Bachmann, June 14, 2011
“[Michele] Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions….Bachmann is exactly the right kind of completely batshit crazy. Not medically crazy, not talking-to-herself-on-the-subway crazy, but grandiose crazy, late-stage Kim Jong-Il crazy….This hard-charging challenger for the GOP nomination is a rare breed of political psychopath, equal parts crazed Divine Wind kamikaze-for-Jesus and calculating, six-faced Machiavellian prevaricator….She is at once the most entertaining and the most dangerous kind of liar, a turbocharged cross between a born bullshit artist and a religious fanatic, for whom lying to the infidel is a kind of holy duty.” — -Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi in a July 7, 2011 profile, “Michele Bachmann’s Holy War.
— Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.
NBC’s Lauer Asks if Bachmann Will Be ‘Palinized,’ She Predicts ‘Media Onslaught of Attack’
In an interview with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Tuesday’s Today, co-host Matt Lauer highlighted concerns about the Minnesota Republican’s chances in the presidential race: “Amy Kremer, who’s a leader of the Tea Party movement, said...that you will be – and this is her word, not mine – quote, ‘Palinized’ in this campaign. Do you understand the verb, and what would your definition of it be?”
While Bachmann attempted to discuss her record, Lauer remained focused on the remark: “I’m not trying to interrupt, but I’m asking you specifically about what this leader of the Tea Party is worried about, that you will be ‘Palinized.’ Again, that’s her word. What do you understand that to mean?” Bachmann defined the term for him: “I think that means that there will be a media onslaught of attack. But that’s nothing new….There will be attacks that come….And I’m prepared.”
Earlier in the interview, Lauer characterized Bachmann as being “angry” with fellow Republicans over past compromises on the budget and wondered: “So are you confident now in the debate that’s going on over raising the debt ceiling that people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will not cave in and make you angry again?” After Bachmann explained the importance of cutting spending, Lauer again depicted her as being angered by compromise: “I’m just saying, are you confident that there will not be a compromise of the nature that will make you angry again?”
Prior to the interview, correspondent Kelly O’Donnell touted a minor mistake by Bachmann about the Iowa birthplace of actor John Wayne as a sign of more serious problems: “But it’s her own words causing more distraction….Iowans will tell you John Wayne was born 150 miles away in Winterset. Details that fit a pattern of factual errors that hurt Bachmann.”
A sound bite followed from Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post, who argued: “Those kind of gaffes will catch up with her, and they’re more meaningful and will get more attention because of her status.”
O’Donnell placed similar emphasis on Bachmann’s gaffes during a report for Monday’s Nightly News, asserting that the Congresswoman “has been embarrassed by a string of factual errors.”
Here is a full transcript of Lauer’s June 28 interview with Bachmann:
7:10AM ET
MATT LAUER: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is with us this morning from Manchester, New Hampshire. Congresswoman Bachmann, it’s nice to have you here again. Thank you.
MICHELE BACHMANN: Good morning. Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me on.
LAUER: Let’s talk about the polls, the Des Moines Register poll that was released over the weekend has you running neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney in that state. Obviously, the Iowa caucuses are important. You get a lot of early attention in the race. They haven’t always, though, been the greatest predictor of who eventually gets the nomination. I think only about 50% of the time. So are you at all concerned that your socially conservative views that make you very popular in Iowa might not play as well down the road?
BACHMANN: Well, I’m in New Hampshire now. I was in this Iowa yesterday, New Hampshire today. I’m on my way to South Carolina, where we’ll start a bus tour, and then we’ll be back to Iowa. I intend to have a 50-state campaign, because I intend to be the nominee that takes on Barack Obama and defeats him in 2012. That’s why we’ve had so many people flock to our new website launch at MicheleBachmann.com and join us on Facebook and Twitter.
LAUER: Right.
BACHMANN: They’ve recognized we are the candidate that’s going places now in this election. We’re very excited with all of the response across the country.
LAUER: Let’s talk about some ideas here. Obviously, you talk to people around the country, they say jobs. That is the most important issue in the upcoming campaign. So what would you do today, Congresswoman, that President Obama is not doing, to bring down the nation’s unemployment rate of 9.1%?
BACHMANN: Right. Well, probably the first thing that I would do is I would repeal ObamaCare. That’s the worst regulation that’s come forward. I’ve talked to business owners all across the United States, and because of the fear of the uncertainty and the huge fines that employers will be imposed to pay to the federal government, they aren’t hiring. And that’s a very difficult proposition. So I would do that. I would also not be looking at spending a trillion dollars that we don’t have.
LAUER: Right.
BACHMANN: I would be cutting back on federal spending. I would also bring down the federal corporate tax rate. And I would be looking at the federal regulatory burden, which costs our businesses $1.7 trillion a year. There’s a lot we could do to turn this around.
LAUER: I remember back in April you were critical of the budget deal that was reached between Republicans and Democrats. You thought, I think, in some ways that the Republican leadership caved in. So are you confident now in the debate that’s going on over raising the debt ceiling that people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will not cave in and make you angry again?
BACHMANN: Well, we’re – this is the debt ceiling vote. And this would be allowing the federal government to continue borrowing money that we don’t have.
LAUER: Right.
BACHMANN: It’s $2.4 trillion. And from what I’ve seen in my time in Washington, is a lack of a serious attempt at cutting spending. Unless there’s a serious attempt on cutting back federal spending, I just simply can’t vote to raise the debt ceiling. I’ll give you one very-
LAUER: No, and Republicans have already said they want that cut back in spending. I’m just saying, are you confident that there will not be a compromise of the nature that will make you angry again?
BACHMANN: I’m not confident at all. That’s why I’m very concerned about what I’m seeing. I’m hopeful. I am hopeful that we’ll – politicians in Washington will be listening to people on the ground. And there are a lot of good people. A lot of good colleagues that I have. But we have to deliver results for the American people and turn the economy around so we get it on the right track. There’s a lot of people that are suffering right now. I see them. I saw them in Iowa yesterday. Today I’ll be with people in New Hampshire. And when they see me in the backyard barbecues and the town hall meetings, it’s real. This isn’t something that’s hype. The suffering is real. And unfortunately, President Obama is not paying attention to what people are trying to get his attention and tell them.
LAUER: Let me read you something. Amy Kremer, who’s a leader of the Tea Party movement, said to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday, Congresswoman Bachmann, that you will be – and this is her word, not mine, quote, ‘Palinized’ in this campaign. Do you understand the verb, and what would your definition of it be?
BACHMANN: Well, I know that I bring a unique skill set to the race. And my skill set that I bring is that of being a former federal tax lawyer, my husband and I started a successful small business. We’ve also started a charter school for at-risk children.
LAUER: No, I understand, and I’m not trying to interrupt, but I’m asking you specifically about what this leader of the Tea Party is worried about, that you will be ‘Palinized.’ Again, that’s her word. What do you understand that to mean?
BACHMANN: Well, I think that means that there will be a media onslaught of attack. But that’s nothing new. That’s something that goes with the territory. It doesn’t matter who the candidate is, whether they’re male or female. There will be attacks that come. And that’s simply what we have to be prepared to deal with. And I’m prepared.
LAUER: Alright. Michele Bachmann, just announced her candidacy for the presidency. Congratulations Congresswoman, and again, thank you for your time this morning.
BACHMANN: Thank you. We’ll be back again soon.
LAUER: Alright. We hope so.
— Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.
CNN Presses Michele Bachmann: Did You Intend to Make False Statements?
On Tuesday’s American Morning, co-host Kiran Chetry reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is “prone to misstatements” and posed this question to her: “Did you mean to make false statements intentionally or were you just misspeaking?”
“PolitiFact.com, which is a Pulitzer Price winning fact-checking web site examined 26 statements that you made and they found only one to be fully true and 18 to be false,” Chetry told Bachmann. “Several of them relating to your criticism of President Obama. Did you mean to make false statements intentionally or were you just misspeaking?”
[Video below.]
The same network was far more generous to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 when he made a Memorial Day gaffe about fallen soldiers – “and I see many of them in the audience today.” CNN, for whatever reason, cut out that brief part of the sentence from its ensuing coverage of his speech. And other networks have used PolitiFact to scrutinize Bachmann, but spared Obama similar treatment.
Anderson Cooper had led his Monday night news cast with a critical look at Bachmann’s being a beneficiary of federal subsidies. However, he himself downplayed the news a bit by admitting the amount of money she received overall was “relatively small,” and American Morning did not think it enough of a story to even mention in the interview of Bachmann.
However, the morning show co-host did ask Bachmann “Do you think that it’s harder to prove you’re serious because you’re a woman?” The question is interesting considering the media has decidedly questioned Bachmann’s seriousness as a candidate, and yet claims to be progressive when it comes to championing the rights of women. Was Chetry implying that the Tea Party is indeed more friendly to women than the media elite, or at least to conservative women?
A transcript of the two segments is as follows:
CNN
ANDERSON COOPER
6/27/11
10:00 p.m. EDT
ANDERSON COOPER: But we begin tonight, as we always do, “Keeping Them Honest,” with a candidate for president who’s campaigning against big government, even though she and her family are personally benefitting from government money.
(…)
COOPER: Michele Bachmann speaking out against government bailouts, earmarks, and handouts. But, keeping her honest, it turns out she’s not only benefitted personally from government money over the years, it seems she’s also lobbied for it. There’s her husband’s counseling clinic, Bachmann and Associates. He’s a psychologist whose clinic offers what they call Christian counseling. According to The Los Angeles Times, citing Minnesota state records, the clinic received nearly $30,000 in government money since 2006.
We did our own digging and learned that $24,000 of it came from a state grant financed totally by federal money. Then there’s her late father-in-law’s farm in Wisconsin in which she’s a partner. We got this information from a government watchdog group called the Environmental Working Group. According to the EWG’s farm subsidy database, the farm got more than a quarter million dollars between 1995 and 2008, mostly in federal corn and dairy subsidies. Congresswoman Bachmann was asked about both the clinic and the farm over the weekend.
(…)
COOPER: As for the clinic, according to The L.A. Times, yes, that money was earmarked for training employees, training which obviously benefits the clinic. As for not getting a penny from the farm, her own financial disclosure documents show that isn’t so. They reveal between $32,000 and $105,000 of income between 2006 and 2009.
In public, meantime, she was railing against and voting against federal farm payments, voting no on a 2008 farm subsidy bill. Yet, the very next year, she wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack praising government price support programs and asking for more, quote, “I would encourage you to take any additional steps necessary to prevent further deterioration of these critical industries,” she writes, “such as making additional commodities purchases.” In other words, more government intervention in the marketplace benefitting her constituents and herself while she rails against big government intervening in the marketplace. Bob Schieffer asked her about that contradiction yesterday on CBS’s Face the Nation, and she dodged the question. Watch.
(…)
COOPER: So, John, relatively speaking, I guess a relatively small amount of government money over many years, but it does raise questions for a candidate who’s made her name attacking big government spending.
CNN
AMERICAN MORNING
6/28/11
7:33 a.m. EDT
KIRAN CHETRY: So you officially announced yesterday. And you know, really there are two story lines about you out there right now. One is that you shot on to the national stage. You have a lot of enthusiastic supporters especially in the Tea Party.
The other, though, is that you’re prone to misstatements and PolitiFact.com, which is a Pulitzer Price winning fact-checking web site examined 26 statements that you made and they found only one to be fully true and 18 to be false. Several of them relating to your criticism of President Obama. Did you mean to make false statements intentionally or were you just misspeaking?
Rep. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-Minn.), Republican presidential candidate: Well, of course they were just misspeaking and that happens. People can make mistakes, and I wish I could be perfect every time I say something, but I can’t. But one thing people know about me, is that I’m a substantive, serious person and I have a very strong background. I’m a former federal tax litigation attorney and I’ve spent considerable time in the U.S. Federal Tax Court, as well as being a successful small business owner. One thing I am is a businesswoman. I’ve got good sense on how to turn the economy around and how to create jobs. That’s the number one issue in our economy. I want to bring that sensibility together with a small town common sense good values that I learned growing up in Waterloo, Iowa and in Minnesota. I want to take – I’ve taken that voice to the halls of Congress very successfully. Now I want to take that voice into the White House where it hasn’t been heard for a long time.
CHETRY: And Congresswoman, I just want to ask you one question, because I don’t think –
BACHMANN: I think that’s why people are so excited.
CHETRY: No, I’m not doubting that you’re serious or that you’re smart at all, but are these misstatements becoming a distraction and how do you move on from that?
BACHMANN: Well you know, not really. Because people are most concerned about my economic message of positive change in the economy. We are going on the wrong track and people are concerned that their children won’t do as well as they have. So people want to know, is there a person that I could trust who does know how to turn the economy, who can get me better wages and a better job? I understand how to do that. I’ve done that successfully before. And People want someone who can do that. They see President Obama has failed us, and President Obama said himself in February of 2009, if he can’t turn the economy around by the third year of his presidency, that he should be a one term president. I agree with him. I think he should be a one-term president, and I think I can bring that expertise, that level of knowledge to be able to turn the economy around – that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
CHETRY: I know that you are saying people want to focus on those things and I hear you, but today people are focusing on the fact that you said John Wayne was from Waterloo when John Wayne Gacey, the serial killer lived there for a time. You know instead of talking about the economic message, people are picking up on a gaffe.
BACHMANN: Well, again, John Wayne’s parents first home was in Waterloo, Iowa, and he was from Iowa. And, of course the main point that I was making, are the sensibilities of John Wayne, which is patriotism, love of country, standing up for our nation, that positive enthusiasm is what America is all about and that’s, of course, my main point.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about what Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace said to you. He asked you this weekend in an interview if you were a flake, and you handled it pretty well in my opinion. You kept your composure. I know that he’s since apologized. You have since said in some subsequent interviews that you’re a serious person, you said it to me right now. Do you think that it’s harder to prove you’re serious because you’re a woman?
BACHMANN: You know, I think that people just need to know what a person’s background is. And I’m introducing myself now to the American people so that they can know that I have a strong academic scholarly background, but more important, I have a real-life background. Where my husband and I who came from very low, middle income families worked our way through college, worked our way for everything that we have, and we were able to succeed in our business and raise a successful family with our 23 foster children, our five biological children. We started a charter school for at-risk children.
CHETRY: I do want to ask you about that as well. Because as a mother I marvel at the fact that a., you raised five kids. I’m busy juggling two, I don’t know how you do it. On top of that, 23 foster children, you’ve said that to me before and I find that remarkable as a mother I often wonder how did you make that work? For example, how long did they live with you and were they all there around the same time or did you just have a lot of foster children over the years?
BACHMANN: We had a lot of foster children over the years, Kiran. And what we did is we had as many as four foster children at a time and then our five biological. So the greatest number we had were nine children. And it was a wonderful experience, I think, for us, for them, and we’re so grateful that we could do it. They’re really great kids. I encourage people to become foster parents and consider becoming foster parents.
CHETRY: Well, it was great to talk to you this morning, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Manchester, New Hampshire, this morning officially kicking off your campaign yesterday, thanks for your time this morning.
BACHMANN: Thanks. We’ll do it again soon.
— Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center.
ABC Donated 15 Minutes to Obama’s Take on Fatherhood, But Knocks Bachmann’s ‘False Statements’
Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos, host of the same program that provided Barack Obama with a 15 minute platform to talk about the importance of fathers, badgered Michele Bachmann on Tuesday with combative questions and forced the Congresswoman to respond to charges of constantly making “false statements.”
Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic operative and Bill Clinton staffer, tried to make trouble for Bachmann and possible rival Sarah Palin. He baited, “Do you think Sarah Palin is trying to rain on your parade by coming to Iowa today?”
The ABC anchor wielded the journalism website Politifact as a club, lecturing, “But, as you make progress in this campaign, everything you say is going to get more scrutiny. And the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact has said you have the worst record of making false statements of any of the leading contenders.”
The GMA host brought up Bachmann’s claim that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery, disputing, “Now, with respect, Congresswoman, that’s just not true. Many of them, including Jefferson and Washington, were actually slave holders. And slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.”
Yet, in a September of 2008 interview, Stephanopoulos was eager to do damage control for then-Senator Obama. After the presidential candidate asserted that “John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith,” Stephanopoulos jumped in to help, “Your Christian faith.”
Obama was attempting to make a clarifying statement, pointing out McCain had never suggested he was a Muslim. So, the error was in Stephanopoulos’ misinterpretation. But even this prompted the journalist to attempt to clear things up.
Stephanopoulos has previously interviewed Bachmann Good Morning America, forcing the Republican to gaze at Obama’s birth certificate and to declare that the President is a Christian.
On June 17, Robin Roberts interviewed Barack Obama for 15 minutes about the importance of fathers. Avoiding tough questions, she turned to sports celebrities such as Drew Brees for queries.
A transcript of the June 28 segment, which aired at 7:08am EDT, follows:
ABC GRAPHIC: Tea Party Favorite Joins Race: Bachmann at Top of Polls
MICHELE BACHMANN: Thank you, George. Great to be with you this morning.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In your announcement speech yesterday, you said “my voice is part of a movement to take back our country.” From whom?
BACHMANN: Well, from the people all across the nation. The voice that I learned growing up in Iowa was a very reasonable, common-sense voice. And that’s one I learned and taken successfully to the halls of Congress. And now, I want to take that to the White house.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You have been making a lot of progress. Also getting a lot of scrutiny. I’m going to not get too deep into the flake flap from Sunday. But, as you make progress in this campaign, everything you say is going to get more scrutiny. And the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact has said you have the worst record of making false statements of any of the leading contenders. And I wondered if you want to take a second to clear up some of your past statements.
For example, earlier this year, you said that the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence worked tirelessly to end slavery. Now, with respect, Congresswoman, that’s just not true. Many of them, including Jefferson and Washington, were actually slave holders. And slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.
BACHMANN: Well, you know what’s marvelous, is in this country, under our Constitution, we have the ability when we recognize that something is wrong, to change it. And that’s what we did in our country. We changed it. We no longer have slavery. That’s a good thing. And what our Constitution has done for our nation is to give us a basis of freedom, unparalleled in the rest of the world. That’s what people want to do because they realize-
STEPHANOPOULOS: I agree with that, Congresswoman, but-
BACHMANN: -that our government is taking away their freedoms.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But, that’s not what you said. You said that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.
BACHMANN: Well, if you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true. He was a young boy, when he was with his father, serving, essentially, as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did, in fact, one day, eradicate slavery.
STEPHANOPOULOS: [Incredulous] He wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers. He was- He was a President. He was a secretary of state. And a member of Congress, you’re right. He did work to end slavery, decades later. Bu, so, you’re standing by this comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery?
BACHMANN: Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy, but he was actively involved.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, let me move on to another one of your statements, on the issue of jobs, which is so central to this campaign. You said back in 2005, that taking away the minimum wage could potentially, virtually, wipe out unemployment. Where is the evidence for that?
BACHMANN: People are very upset that the President has us at 9.1 percent unemployment. That is not acceptable. We lost millions of jobs. People are suffering right now. They’re hurting. And I feel their pain. And I want to make sure what we do going forward is actually to address this and turn the economy around.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me try one more time. So, you’re saying that the minimum wage is one of the regulations you’d take a a look at? You’d try to eliminate it?
BACHMANN: Well, what I’m saying is that I think we need to lock at all regulations. Whatever ones are inhibiting job growth, that’s what we need-
STEPHANOPOULOS: And the minimum wage is one of them?
BACHMANN: All regulations, George. I think every department. We have too much expansion of government. What we need to do is tamp that down so that the American people can keep more of what they make.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Just a couple more questions. Do you think Sarah Palin is trying to rain on your parade by coming to Iowa today?
BACHMANN: You know, I think that it’s wonderful that the Governor is coming to Iowa. I think they’ll enjoy her. She’ll certainly enjoy them. People in Iowa are just such wonderful, transparent people. And it’s their values and their character, and their morals that they poured into me as I was growing up there as a little girl. That’s the voice I want to take the White House.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One more question. I think one of the most impressive things that people are impressed with in your background is that you and your husband have raised 23 foster children. And I know you want to shield them, but are they prepared? And are you prepared for the loss of privacy that comes with a presidential campaign? And is that something you’re concerned about for them?
BACHMANN: When we were making this momentous decision, we sat down for a long time a as a family and contemplated what this would mean. And, yes, we are ready. We have five, wonderful biological children. Our last one is off to college. Our oldest one is a doctor. And then we have great 23 foster children in our home, as well. We are so thankful that we have them. But we want to observe their privacy and that of their families.
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