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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
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She does not actually hate Muslims. I am actually sure that she just can not stop talking. If she is not talking she feels irrelevant. My niece rambles on sometimes until she makes no sense at all. Usually, I just have her take a nap and she wakes up just fine. Bachmann just needs a nap.
She is BI-POLAR. Bachman certainly is bi-polar. Your daughter can be helped, my step-son was... same rambling. Bachman can't. She is too far gone.
Bachmann hates muslims. So what's new?
Breaking news: In another of the long line of racist comments directed at President Obama and his family, a wannabe Tea Party politician and supporter of Ron Paul called for the assassination of the first family.
Jules Manson, who fell flat on his face when running for California City Council years ago, went on a Facebook rant that makes Rush Limbaugh's and Matt Drudge's comments about the Obamas look mild. "It must be countered with assassinations onto them and their children," he wrote in the original posting, which has since been scrubbed from his Facebook profile.
"Assassinate the f----n (N-word) and his monkey children," he prodded, according to a screen grab obtained by YourBlackWorld.com.
An angry backlash followed on Facebook, and Manson apologized for his words but defended his right to speak freely. "Once you have taken the position that anyone should be imprisoned for careless emotionally driven remarks that had no real substance, you deserve what your government has become," he wrote in the new Facebook post.
This isn't the first time Manson attacked Obama: He put up a picture of the president dressed as Hitler earlier in the year.
Unless there is a conspiracy in Washington between the TP and the Secret Service and the FBI, then WHY is that person who openly expressed a desire to assassinate possibly our President and his family NOT in Federal Custody? He should have been in custody immediately! Was it because he was a TP and somehow PROTECTED?
Hey! Bachman, aren't you a TP.
I do.
This Michelle Bachmann is copy of Sarah Palin!!!!....look out....we may soon get another new word in IA.
"may" being the operative word. Spare us the spin control and save it for your base.
That only proves that there were two candidates running on the "I'm with stupid slate".
One a graduate of a phony "fundamentalist" college and trying hard not to sound stupid and the other basking in her ignorance bragging that her knowledge is based on her visual acuity from her kitchen window when it comes to Russia or not knowing squat about one of the greatest patriotic acts of our time. The ride of Paul Revere. Would you be so tolerant if your kids spent 12 years in school and were as ignorant.
Cherokee you betcha weigh your words.....becareful, the Secret Service might show up on your door-steps.
Its buckman, who cares? Maybe hubby can get more tax dollars for more counseling to "pray away the gay and the muslims"
Now, the Muslims should get up and say "We don't hate Republicans just because they are no brain, self centered, no clue, right wing propanganda mouth pieces who pick and choose facts to their liking, don't care much for history or education, and believe in a God which hates all other people who don't believe in their God, and, well, we pray for them just like we pray for anyone..."
The sad part is not that Congresswoman Bachman lies ...it is that she believes her lies.
I learned name calling, lying, twistint facts, shouting down people, negativity, self centerdness, moral boasting, and a host of OTHER FINE QUALITIES from the TEA PARTY. You guys are good teachers and I have learned a lot.
She might not hate muslims but millions of American do. They are all nothing but pagan, evil and dirty pigs. They all need to be dead and be eliminated at all cost.
Michele Bachmann will be the cutest president we've ever had. When she does win the presidency, we will finally be on the road to recovery and to a conservative, Christian society that we all aspire to.
Just kidding!
Well we've tracked Michelle since 1997 here in Minnesota. We have to say she is not as bad as Herman Cain was. Cain remeber said he would not appoint a Musmim to anything. Michelle has never, ever siad anything close to that. She has siad that the harliner's in Iran and in Hezbollah and Hamas aren't exactly chummy people. And she has confornted Muslims over textbooks depicting rabid anti-anti-semitism in Arabic texts in the Palestinian region (the texts had been funed with american money).
Those are legitimate complaints anyone could make.
We are not Michelle's BFF. But we know the truth-she doesn't hate them. She picks a[part the practices that aren't conducive to peace. we onoly wish she would do more and condemn Isreal's land grabs that are clearly illeagal
If Iran DOES have nukes, what does angering them accomplish? It just makes us an attractive target.
michell you could reads da koran or da bibles upside down nakeds. I stills wants to teach you about loves. you make me frisker den a 80year ol man (I 100 year ol man)
A delusional hypocrite like all the other republican candidates.
The problem with the Muslims is that so far no one has been able to distinguish the peace loving and hard working ones from the bomb wielding fanatics. Up to the time they get their marching orders, the bad ones manage to blend in indistinguishably with the good. Certainly, this makes it tough on those who came over here for the single purpose of finding a new and better place to live; but, until someone can find a formula that will successfully ferret out these bad guys, suspicion will continue to run high!
Paul's statement that he fears "we'll get a president who will bomb Iran" should send a message to all the voters. After all, wasn't George W--who was a Republican I believe--the one who a decade ago did exactly that in Iraq? We need to guard against ever again allowing another war hawk (or someone led by the nose by the warhawks) into the White House. Let these Muslims fight among themselves if that's what they're determined to do but keep our own troops--and money!--out of there! Vote for President Barach Obama in 2012 if you're against our funding a never ending series of wars in the Middle East!
Note: As long as we're footing the bill and shedding the blood, all the other countries are perfectly content we do so!
She can cure the Muslims, same as gays. Either they convert and embrace Christianity, or she will kill them. Just like the Crusades and the middle ages. It is the humane thing to do.
I believe the Roots said it best >:) Every time she opens her gaping piehole, she takes women in politics back a few more years. Even the Republicans want her to quit... she's making them look bad.
Bachmann doesn't hate muslims she would just like to bomb them back to the stoneage just incase there might be a bad one over there somewhere living now or that has lived or might be born.
If by some miraculous stroke of luck Bachmann becomes the GOP candidate then may almighty Atheismo have mercy on our souls. (which really only exist only metaphorically)
If Bachmann becomes the GOP candidate Obama will serve another term as president, guaranteed.
I'm willing to bet that there are some Muslims that hate Bachmann -- and some Jews and Christians that hate her too. Why I know one Jew that can't stand Bachmann -- yours truly.
And Christin O'donnell is not a witch.
Oh, don't be so hard on her, after all most politicians (seems like most republicans in particular) just don't like anybody in general. They just want your vote then for you to go away and let them cater to their big donors. Just look at the fights over Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, etc… Vote for me and become my little pawn you bunch of tools!