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James Novogrod / NBC News
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., addresses reporters Saturday in Estherville, Iowa, where she was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
ALGONA, Iowa – A feud inside the GOP presidential field provoked Michele Bachmann to defend her hard line on Iran on Saturday while insisting that she doesn't "hate Muslims."
Bachmann repeated variations on that phrase in at least three cities during her 99 county bus tour of Iowa.
"I don't hate Muslims. I love the American people. And as president of the United States, my goal will be to keep America safe, free, and sovereign," Bachmann told reporters Saturday morning in Estherville.
The unusually personal self-defense is the latest element in a back-and-forth with U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who criticized Bachmann on national television Friday night.
Appearing on NBC's "Tonight Show," Paul said Bachmann "doesn’t like" Muslims.
"She hates Muslims," Paul added. "She wants to go get 'em."
The origins of the feud go back to Thursday's Fox News debate, in Sioux City, where Paul and Bachmann locked horns over how to handle the prospect of a nuclear Iran.
"There's war propaganda going on," Paul said of pronouncements among the GOP about confronting the threat.
"To me, the greatest danger is that we will have a president that will overreact and we will soon bomb Iran," he added.
Kevin Winter / NBCuniversal / Getty Images Contributor
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appears on the "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" Friday at NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif.
Asked to reply, Bachmann said: "I think I have never heard a more dangerous answer for American security than the one that we just heard from Ron Paul."
She later added that the idea of not confronting Iran amounts to "the greatest under-reaction in world history."
(Bachmann's plan on Iran, unveiled in November, does not call for an immediate strike, but recommends "crushing" sanctions and covert activity to destabilize the regime.)
On Saturday, Bachmann used Paul's charge that she "hates" Muslims to advance her own assertions about Iran's leaders.
"Where the true hatred is coming from is the president of Iran and the mullahs," Bachmann told reporters in Algona.
"They’ve said unequivocally that they want to obtain a nuclear weapon for the express purpose of using it against our ally, Israel, to kill the Jews," she said, adding: "They also want to use it against the United States and kill Americans."
Related story: Pickets swarm Lowe's in Arab-American Michigan community for pulling ads from Muslim TV show
Leave a Comment:
Maybe Michelle doesn't hate Muslims.
But why does she and the other anti-American right-wingers hate the American working class so much and love and pander to the ultra-filthy rich so flippin' much?
Either way it doesn't matter. The rabid right has trashed so much of this country in the last 43 years it really has become the banana republic she loves to talk about.
No she probably does not hate Muslims she just wants to convert them or kill them. You know like the crusades. She belongs to a fraction of the so-called christian far right that believes that it is their god given responsibility to either convert every soul and/or create Armageddon.
It is hard to show you don't hate when you are trying to get the votes of people who do.
Of course she doesn't hate anyone. It is God who hates Muslims, Gays, Feminists, democrats, and all those other Unamerican people who are NOT like her. She is just channeling God for those of too stupid to know better.
Saw her on Meet The Putz this morning--and I thought Bush was dumb !--My G-d she makes him look like Einstein.
Does this mean Bachmann doesn't think Muslims are going to hell?
She doesn't hate Muslims - but her and Marcus told their kids they would insist they marry a gay/lesbian before a Muslim...
She hates everyone, blacks, gay's Hispanics, Muslims, you name it she hates them but won't say it.
Is this Palin's long lost twin? why are idiots like her even running? She is a disgrace to all races and religions.
Cool not to hate muslims but stupid and naive to think they can be trusted........ANYONE BUT obama IN 2012!!!!
for those so called americans people who just open there mouth to talk and don't know what is really about let me explain very siple. IF YOU NOT A MUSLIM RELIGION U ARE INFEDEL AND MUST MUST DIE PERIOD.
Why all of u loving people go to one of the muslim countries and live there try to open church or get citizenship or
try to walk in shorts. all u do is yepping and dont know a crap
Sooooooooooooo.......when a Muslim kills to show his passion for Allah, it's evil........but when a Christian kills to show his passion for Christ.........he's a saint?
A tolerant teatard?....(ROFLMA0!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I dont hate them ,I dont feel they should be here in america. they are nothing but low life scum balls.
they live in the stone age and have nothing to give to american .but they do take from us every hand out we have.
theres only one reson they are here.to live off of us.because they couldnt hack it ,in there own country . so they run instead of fight for there country .you see it every day .same with the illegal mex. cowards to stay in there country to make it better.have to live off of others.
Are you Still talking about Evangelicals....or.....Muslims?????
.but they do take from us every hand out we have.
Hey, vietnamvet...I thought it was the blacks taking everthing from "us". Or, is it the Hispanics taking everything from "us".
Better still, it's those poor, lazy whites on welfare who are taking everything from "us". Right, vietnamvet?
I'm glad it's not the rich, or corporate welfare-types who have all the earned, honest dollars, w/o taking everything from "us"! Aren't you glad, too, vietnamvet?
Hope Bachmann gets your final vote.
As a tribute to how incredibly stupid this woman is, there she stands, repeating over and over about how she doesn't hate Muslims, all the while totally ignorant of the fact that nobody believes a thing she says anymore. She's just totally oblivious to reality. Now THAT is about as stupid as you can get.
All parties have a right to their opinions, and since this is America, they have the right to voice them. Sadly, though, it seems we (as a people) have never mastered the art of talking respectfully TO each other and actually trying to understand each other, instead of talking AT or ABOUT each other. Civility and respect for other people and differing opinions seems to be largely lost in our soceity (except among those with whom we agree). When we have differing opinions, we allow ourselves to quickly devolve into the worst forms of ourselves (hateful, cynical, bigoted, domineering, sarcastic, etc.) and our conversations degenerate into little better than mean-spirited name-calling sessions. It seems that this reality extends even to many of the participants in this discussion.
I have read many of the comments in this disscussion, and it is clear that many of those posting comments are very intelligent and have deeply held beliefs and express them passionately. I would hope that we could express those beliefs without casting aspersions onto the other participants--to rationally discuss, rather than denigrate, disparage, and belittle one another. Perhaps we could try to understand opposing view points, rather than simply trying to "win" the argument by name-calling and verbally assaulting one another.
I'm just saying.
Religions (ALL religions) have caused SO much hell and suffering on the Earth. Imagine if...
--------------------------------
Imagine there's no heaven.
It's easy if you try.
No hell below us.
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people.
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for.
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people.
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer.
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us.
And the world will be as one.
"I don't hate Muslims, I just dislike everything I think they stand for. The only problem with that is I don't check my facts very well and I really don't know what they stand for. In fact, I believe my own propaganda so much I don't know what is real anymore. Oh, am I still talking?" SOMEONE NEEDS TO SHUT THIS NUT UP!!
Troy, why is it not okay to disagree with what a group stands for, or dislike some of the things they do (such as the hideous way they treat women, gays, and people of other religions), as long as you do so peacefully? Isn't that each individual's right? Isn't that one of the greatest and most unique things about America? Is that not, in fact, also what you are doing?
It's not hate. In this case it's just Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann expressing their deeply held beliefs (mixed with some political rhetoric) in a rather competitive presidential election season, and being done so in a peaceful manner. And of course, the media outlets stirring it up a bit to sell advertising and sway people to vote a certain way.
I wouldn't get too caught up in it.
He isn't talking about the disagreement. I disagree with her. She is not a whore. She is not an idiot. She is not un-American. She doesn't see herself as a racist. Most of what comes above makes me ashamed to be a liberal. Can't we talk ideas any more?
It is ok to disagree with what another group believes. However, there is a cavernous gap between "what" and "how." The what is ok. How Michele Bachmann does and says just about everything is not ok. She should be a spokesperson for Craftsman or Dewalt. TOOL
As for what makes America great, too many Americans are sitting back and resting on an ideal that is as old as the Edsel. We are no longer great. In too many ways, we are getting our butts kicked when compared to other industrialized nations. The short list: education, health care, elder care, and energy. So, while the GOP runs its collective mouth about how great the USA is, it fails to acknowledge the facts. If we keep believing our own propaganda (and those like Bachmann who spout a continuous stream of it), we are going to fall further behind.
In fairness, she could have contextualized her answer a bit more, something along the lines of: "I don't hate Muslims. I hate anyone who's not just like me, who doesn't believe in only and exactly what I believe in, who can smell a fraud and calls me, errr, I mean, the fraud out, and who read my personal diary when I wrote, in confidence to my diary, that I'm sure my husband is a major closet queen. I also hate most Black people. But I'm from Iowa where they do, too, and represent Minnesota where there aren't many of 'em. I don't care for smart people, because they can do math."
She doesn't hate Muslims she hates the gays, just like her husband. That why he meets them in a clinic behind closed doors for some good doctor patient confidentiality.
Somewhere in Minnesota, a village is missing it's idiot. And shame on those idiot Republicans in Minnesota for electing this mouth breather.
@Jack: Trust me, we facepalm every day at her.
I Don't hate Muslims either I just want one of them out of the white house in 2012
Its it the Muslim that you don't like or the fact that his b lack daddy had one of your white women? Here is your hood and cross racist.
Add Liar to the long list of reasons Michele Bachmann should immediately leave the public arena, in addition to her ignorance and stupidity. This woman truly represents the core ideology at the base of the bagger-snotzie movement; and, is the main reason the approval rating of the US Congress is somewhere below that of "Typhoid Mary."
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance or conscientious stupidity." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
u r 1 vile mouthed b***h!!
@Diane:
Look into Michelle's comments about her supposedly getting an amendment passed in Minnesota so that gays couldn't marry. Michelle claims that when she was in the state legislature, she introduced a bill that was passed and given to voters, who also passed it and is now enacted.
Not only was such a bill never passed while Michelle was in the state legislature, but the voters in Minnesota have never voted on such an amendment.
It's hilarious.
I have read more vitriolic and hateful comments from u bunch of loonies than ANYTHING Bachmann could ever say.
When it comes to intelligence and stupidity, NOTHING could be more ignorant and ridiculously stupid than the clowns that put Obozo into office as POTUS!!!! ANY REPUBLICAN, blind, crippled,DEAD, or crazy, looks like a viable candidate for POTUS when compared to this Jive walking, smooth talking pimp from Chicago we have now. Trust me.....CHANGE IS ON THE WAY!! Bye-bye Obummer
And does BK stand for BIGOT KING?
Liberals especially love the Muslims who want to destroy America.......that's why they all will be flushed this November......bye, libs......
That is a dumb post.
What a fantasy world you live in!
Mike....yeah, especially the fantasy that Americans want America to succeed, unlike the current resident in the White House who is doing everything he can to hurt America.....