Michele Bachmann has had her fair share of foreign policy stumbles, but she just hit a whole new level.
According to a tweet from NBC News’ Jamie Novogrod, Bachmann responded to the recent raiding of the British embassy in Iran by saying that if she was President, she would close down the U.S. embassy there.
There’s just one problem: The U.S. has not had an embassy in Iran ever since the Iranian hostage crisis, when revolutionaries from the budding Islamic state held 52 Americans for 444 days. Indeed, frustration over this helped bring down Bachmann’s bete noire Jimmy Carter by defining his presidency as weak. The two countries have not had official diplomatic relations since that time. Furthermore, President Obama’s short-lived offer of outreach “without preconditions” was a critical part of Republican attacks against his foreign policy.
So, a gaffe it is, and one that’s particularly ironic coming after Bachmann’s recent media push in which she has tried to bill herself as a safe pair of hands, saying, “I haven’t had a gaffe.”
Update: The Bachmann team pushed back fairly quickly on this one, issuing a press release at 9:11pm Eastern. They claim her words were taken out of context, however neither the campaign nor anyone else has yet provided a transcript of her remarks. That would help clear things up.
Urbandale, Iowa - Bachmann for President Communications Director Alice Stewart has issued the following statement in response to Bachmann’s statements about Iran:“Congresswoman Bachmann is a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and is fully aware that we do not have an embassy in Iran and have not had one since 1980. She was agreeing with the actions taken by the British to secure their embassy personnel and was speaking in the hypothetical, that if she was President of the United States and if we had an embassy in Iran, she would have taken the same actions as the British. Her remarks are being taken out of context, given that she has spoken on this subject several times in the past 24 hours and made it clear that she knew we did not have an Iranian embassy. As she has previously stated, President Obama has taken his eye off of Iran, the most significant security threat in the region, and allowed them the luxury of time to move toward obtaining nuclear weapons. She will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons that would threaten our ally Israel and the United States.”
Late Update:
We’ve now got Bachmann’s exact words. Applauding the British for pulling their staff out of Iran she said, “That’s exactly what I would do. We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.” So the “hypothetical” argument advanced by her team sounds ropey at best.
Thomas Lane
Thomas Lane is an associate editor at Talking Points Memo. He previously produced and reported for the BBC from its UN Bureau in New York. He is a dual citizen of the US and the UK.
Oh Crikey.
There hasn't been a U.S. Embassy in Iran for thirty years..Air Head
This is complete Leftist media propaganda Crap - I watched the entire interview - as you should have before taking a position- The same jerk leftists you are repeating are the same ones who go out of their way to avoid reporting Marxist Obama's real life delusional statements (IE) 57 states etc.
ConserValidity I watched the interview too, and she definitely said it. You're the one spewing crap.
ConserValidity
Barack Obama: President of the Harvard Law Review.
Michele Bachmann: Oral Roberts, something, something...
In Bachmannistan (the Future White House) First husband Marcus will lead mandatory National prayers at 6am & 6pm so that YOU people can be forgiven for your transgressions and go to Heaven.
MUCH more at dumbachmann.com
The first thing I'm gonna do when I become President is shut down the American embassy in Freedonia!
I'm not in the habit of making threats, but there'll be a letter about this in the Times tomorrow.
More proof she's an idiot: she thinks she's never said anything stupid before. This is full-fledged Dunning-Kruger effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruge...
I am a Canadian, so I am a little confused about some aspects of the American political process. This woman sounds ever deeper depths of pure stupidity mixed with a noxious and toxic elixir of pure hate masquerading as "family values" or "deeper branches of pure conservative thought". The only thing deep about her is the pockets she seems to have to grab agricultural subsidies for her very well-to-do "family farm" and grants for a kind of Christianity that believes that homosexuality is some deep spiritual sickness that can be cured by more Bible thumpin'. As a Christian myself, she is an embarrassment. My question is: Are there really enough really dumb people to allow her to keep her candidacy alive, and in a seeming state of health in some states?
whiteb766 There are enough conniving rich people who think her brand of government hatred will serve their interests, yes. The local trolls who try to equate her stupidity with other politicians' slips of the tongue are just servants to those wealthy manipulators. They can't really believe that suggesting shutting down an embassy that doesn't exist is a slip of the tongue, like calling the British Embassy the "English Embassy." They can't really be that stupid, so they must be paid to say these stupid things.
whiteb766 unfortunately there are enough really dumb people here to keep her candidacy alive. we're embarassed by them too. thanks for understanding we are not all like this.
The Iran flub was the most reasonable part of her speech. Check out the rest of it:
She is an absolute idiot , and i complained about Sarah Palin. Both are idiots looking for fame and fortune period
grayson56 You guys are very selective with the word, "idiot". Perhaps you could look and Jumpin' Joe's gaffe reel and come up with the same adjective.
Obama doesn't know what year it is when he signs the guest book in Westminster Abbey. He doesn't know how many states there are. He pronounces the "s" in corpsmen. He stumbles and stutters when without his teleprompter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJSVPAx8xc just one example, there are many).
But worse than all that, his ideas for the economy have made things markedly worse. Many economists believe spending $1 trillion on the first stimulus, using money borrowed from China, prolonged the suffering -- and we're farther in debt. Being a "lawyer" doesn't make you a smart businessman or economist. For that matter, it doesn't even mean you're smart.
"He doesn't know how many states there are." Do you actually believe this, or do you know how the exhaustion of going to '47 states' while trying to correct yoursolf from being accused of lying when he was about to say 'all 50 states' when he hadn't yet been to Alaska and a couple of others, ended up with this coming out?
Becuase if you believe it, you're an idiot, and if not, you're a FOXPoints propagator, using reality out of the context of the work of a campaign and the toll it takes.
More later, if I feel like it, on why a) Republican are responsible for all but about $2T of our current debt, and why fiscal austerity at this point is going to sink the country.
PS: betcha didn't know that, or the ~$800B that was in the 'stimulus'package, 60% was tax breaks, not explicit spending to hire anyone, and of the rest, the Republicans refused to allow half of it to be spent. So the collapse you are pointing to is caused by further tax cuts, your professed religion.
Please come to reality. We're all here, waiting for you to wake up, honey.
czervik7grayson56
czervik7grayson56 You're right, we are very selective with the word "idiot." First it was for Michele, and now it's for- you. ;-0
czervik7grayson56 How could his ideas be what's hurting us when they haven't really been allowed to become policy? Republican obstructionism has made it impossible for the president to implement policies that the nation elected him on, in a landslide election.
czervik7grayson56 Are you really as gullible as you appear or is this an act in hopes that you can reel in gullible people?
czervik7grayson56 czervik7....pull your head out your arse honey, it'll only hurt for a little while.
once you regain your senses turn off fauxnews, they are not serving you or the country well.
Oh, and Obama just called the British Embassy, the "English Embassy". I'm sorry, did I miss that gaffe reported by Thomas Lane?
czervik7 President of the Harvard Law Review. Michele? Meh.
Commie Dearest Anyone ever see the guy there? Of course, you're right. They don't teach geography at Harvard. The geography he knows is Indonesia.
While we're on the subject, where are the academic records from University of Chicago, Columbia and Harvard. How'd he get in? Did he pay? What kind of grades did he get? Anyone ever take is class? If so, how was it? Memorable, like his speeches? Or was it stumbling and bumbling because none of those schools gave their students a teleprompter?
czervik7Commie Dearest My goodness, that's some hard-hitting stuff! How could we have been so fooled?
@Commieczervik7 Dearest
This post is about Michele Bachmann saying that she would close an Embassy that doesn't exist. If she did't make such an idiotic mistake and instead referred to Iran as Persia, you'd have something akin to a point. And the point of the post isn't simply that Bachmann had an amusing gaffe, its that she routinely gets the facts wrong. Bachmann is not qualified to be President.
czervik7 Have you requested them? Or do you just believe everything you read on racist websites? WAA.
czervik7 As someone who holds British citizenship, I have to admit I also use "British" and "English" pretty much interchangeably. Indeed, most Brits beneath the Scottish border still do so. Yes, it's technically an error, but it's such a commonly made one that it passes without an eye being blinked. If Bachmann had been caught in that particular semantic trap I'd be the first to leap to her defense. And if Obama had made this embassy error, I'd certainly weigh in on that.
Guess it's better than adding an extra 7 (non-existent) states.
Using your logic from above how do you know there aren't 7 more states? Have you been everywhere in the world? Are there possibly living Americans you haven't met or spoken with? czervik7
czervik7
Probably better than losing track of $9B in cash in Iraq, letting New Orleans flood, starting a War in the Middle East using stovepiped intelligence, letting OBL go in Tora Bora, turning a budget surplus into a record deficit, or having the worst terrorist attack on US soil occur on your watch, as well for that matter.
czervik7 pull your head out your arse honey, it'll only hurt for a minute.
To whom it may concern, The unlawful attack on the UK Embassy in Tehran is NOT done by students and is NOT a representative behaviour of majority of Iranians (or any Iranian students), but a minority group who have done the same to their own fellow countrymen for years. Any kind of violence is strongly condemned by the majority! I don't know how much the Iranians have to Humiliate because of what Iranian government and their dependent have done and still are doing! It's not fair, I think the majority of Iranians really feel sad because of the incident happened in the British Embassy in Tehran.
John Bulton likes her idea just as long as he get to blow something up in Iran.
Sounds like her handlers should be running for office.
You know, I'm wondering if the GOP switched to Mr. Newtron not because they hate Mittens so much, but it's a matter of them getting over this 'hey! let's noiminate a dumb fuck for office!' thing.
fargo117 For that to be true, Newt would have to be something other than a dumb fuck, so I'm not sure I see your point.
Chesirefargo117 Yikes! That second comma shouldn't be there! I have great respect for Fargo! My kingdom for an edit button!
@Carlos Fiance fargo117 Lol! Tell me about it - I just screwed up an Amish joke with a typo over on another thread and couldn't go back and fx it. I'm kickin' myslef over that.
Chesirefargo117@carlos Copy the post, delete it, and reinsert the text. Then fix the typo and hit "Post comment." Voila!
Commie DearestChesirefargo117@carlos Thanks, Commie D. 'Cept it's no longer in right spot. But that's better than inadvertently being mean to Fargo ;-)
Chesirefargo117 Newt's a dumbfuck, and Fargo knows it!
Chesirefargo117 chesire...newt gingrich said recently that if you are poor you obviously have no one in your life that works for a living and are also a criminal because you only do work that is illegal.
how's that for a slap in the face to the working poor?
pretty audacious for a fatassed white male priviledged multi millionaire to say. he has no understanding of or compassion for people who are different than him.
not qualified to be president for many reasons, this is just one more.
I guess it's better than saying, "Iran? No I have a driver outside."
1979 Embassy closed.
Having Michelle Bachmann on the House Intelligence Committee is like having a priest for a marriage counselor.
david.dayatesyy Or a fish on a bicycle?
david.dayatesyymore like hiring a priest to babysit your sons.
Along with the fake apology, whining that they are picked on because they are Christians, "I didn't say what I said," is one of the three favorite utterances to come out of a Teabagger's mouth.
@fargo117 "one of the three favorite utterances to come out of a Teabagger's mouth."
You shouldn't refer to your fellow Dumb-Old-Rats in that fashion. I realize this refers to Dumb-Old-Rats since they are the ones to use the term and I had to run a search to see what it referenced — after all, you only talk about matters with which you are familiar.
Bimbo alert!!!
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