Honestly speaking, we don’t know. What we do know, is that Bachmann will say anything and everything, despite what everyone knows to be the truth, if it means there is a slight chance she may advance herself politically with the extremely far right and Teaparty
We can point back to just about any interview Bachmann has given since jumping into the spotlight, but right now we will focus on a recent one she did Sunday while the 2012 Republican presidential hopeful made her rounds on the cable news networks. Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to CBS’s Bob Schieffer.
In the interview, Schieffer questions Bachmann about a lie she keeps repeating, that President Obama only issued one offshore oil drilling permit. Of course, the truth is that when Bachmann originally made that statement, the Obama Administration had already issued 270 permits. Here’s Mr. Schieffer;
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 po– 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 truths. 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?”
Michele Bachmann, who claims she accepted Christ at the age of 16 years old and lives a Christian life, decides to continue lying – right there on cable television, with the cameras recording her every word.
BACHMANN: Well, you know, I think that what is clear more than anything is the fact that President Obama does — has not been issuing the permits, that he should have been issuing on offshore drilling that’s…”
SCHIEFFER: Well, it’s more than three hundred now. At… at that time there had been two hundred 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 this week blah blah blah blah…
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 a trillion dollars from other countries and spend it on a stimulus that we won’t have unemployment go above eight 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.
Given the opportunity to set the record straight, Bachmann tried to twist and turn and reroute the misleading claim even more, pointing fingers at President Obama and suggesting that old childish excuse – you know, the “he did it too” routine.
Then, expectantly, to wheedle out of the oil permit lie, Michele lies again! This time, claiming that President Obama promised that the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8%.
The truth of the matter is, and according to Politifact – the very same fact-checking organization Schieffer referenced in pointing out Bachmann’s lie – President Obama never made such a claim. Politifact found the following;
“Obama warned upon taking office that if “dramatic action” were not taken, “the unemployment rate could reach double digits,” with the recession lasting years. But neither we, nor our colleagues at PolitiFact’s Washington, D.C. bureau, could find evidence of anyone in the administration making a public pledge along the lines of “if we pass the stimulus, we promise unemployment will stay below 8 percent.”
Why does Michele Bachmann lie so much? Again – we’re just not sure, but we do see that lying is something that has been perfected by Republicans. Yes, Democrats do it too, but Republicans like Bachmann have mastered the art.
