Rep. Michele Bachmann defended her credentials as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination on Sunday, ahead of her three-day announcement tour that was set to begin later in the day in Iowa.
In back-to-back appearances on "Fox News Sunday" and CBS's "Face the Nation," the Minnesota congresswoman faced a series of tough questions about apparent inconsistencies and a litany of inflammatory but occasionally untrue remarks.
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Associated Press
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" in Washington.
Chris Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," put it bluntly when he asked Ms. Bachmann, "Are you a flake?"
"That would be insulting to say something like that," she replied with a smile before ticking off a list of personal and professional accomplishments, from serving as a government tax attorney to raising five children.
Ms. Bachmann begins her announcement tour Sunday night with an event in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa. The campaign kickoff coincides with a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night that showed her neck-and-neck with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the most popular Republican candidates in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
The Minnesota congresswoman went on offense by criticizing Mr. Romney again for failing to sign an antiabortion pledge proffered by the Susan B. Anthony List. Mr. Romney, whose apparent shift on abortion raised eyebrows among social conservatives during his last bid in 2008, won't sign the pledge because it is too sweeping, his campaign said.
"It's disappointing that he didn't," Ms. Bachmann said on "Fox News Sunday."
On CBS, she took a shot at Mr. Romney's decision to sign a state health-care law as Massachusetts governor that requires most residents to be insured.
Ms. Bachmann reserved most of her vitriol for President Barack Obama and his administration. She accused Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others of engaging in "scare tactics" for warning Congress and the American public that failure to extend the country's borrowing limit would lead to a catastrophic default. Instead, she said the Treasury secretary could divert payments for other government programs to pay the country's creditors.
"I have no intention of voting to raise the debt ceiling," she said.
Ms. Bachmann faces questions about her credibility as she enters the official phase of her presidential campaign. The website PolitiFact issued a report earlier this month reviewing comments Ms. Bachmann has made during her congressional career. Of the 23 comments the website has fact-checked since 2009, nine were deemed "false" and seven earned the "Pants on Fire" distinction, including a recent claim that the Obama administration had only issued one drilling permit since Mr. Obama came into office.
She reiterated one of the disputed contentions Sunday, saying the Congressional Budget Office said the national health-care law would result in the loss of 800,000 jobs. PolitiFact deemed that statistic "barely true."
Ms. Bachmann offered three new pieces of data on Sunday that are bound to elicit some fact-checking. She also said the use of limousines by federal officials has increased by 73% since Mr. Obama became president. And she said the number of Department of Transportation employees earning more than $160,000 has increased from one when the president took office to 1,690.
Ms. Bachmann did retreat from remarks that got her in trouble in 2008, when she said she was "very concerned (Mr. Obama) may have anti-American views."
"I don't question the president's patriotism at all," she said on CBS. "There are a lot of things I wish I'd said differently."
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