EE_
17th December 2011, 10:27 AM
Is Michele Bachmann a Compulsive Liar or Just Clueless?
Posted: 12/16/11 02:53 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-baddar/michele-bachmann-politifact_b_1153964.html
When people say factually inaccurate things, you can often tell whether they're deliberately mischaracterizing the truth or whether they just don't know what they're talking about. With Michele Bachmann, I really can't quite tell.
During a CNN-sponsored Republican debate a few weeks ago, Bachmann was predictably drumming up support for war with Iran, and claimed that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "said that if he has a nuclear weapon he will use it to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. He will use it against the United States of America." This could be sound justification for a war, except Bachmann's allegation is completely devoid of truth. As CNN's Truth Squad points out, Iranian leaders never threatened to nuke Israel or the United States, and they couldn't have because they deny pursuing nuclear weapons in the first place.
So how did Bachmann take being corrected? Rather than speak more carefully when she addressed the topic again, she decided to even exaggerate further (and frankly fall off the deep end) during last night's debate when she said:
"We know without a shadow of a doubt Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map. And they've stated that they will use it against the United States of America."
So no longer is she only alleging that Iran said things they actually didn't, but now we know "without a shadow of doubt" that the attack will happen, unless we do something about it. That's the sort of lying that makes the Iraq war propaganda of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld seem like honest straight-talk by comparison. Not content with that much, Bachmann (who, remarkably, sits on the House Intelligence Committee) sparred with Ron Paul over whether the IAEA said Iran was only months from being able to develop nuclear weapons and, sure enough, Bachmann turned out to be wrong.
Posted: 12/16/11 02:53 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-baddar/michele-bachmann-politifact_b_1153964.html
When people say factually inaccurate things, you can often tell whether they're deliberately mischaracterizing the truth or whether they just don't know what they're talking about. With Michele Bachmann, I really can't quite tell.
During a CNN-sponsored Republican debate a few weeks ago, Bachmann was predictably drumming up support for war with Iran, and claimed that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "said that if he has a nuclear weapon he will use it to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. He will use it against the United States of America." This could be sound justification for a war, except Bachmann's allegation is completely devoid of truth. As CNN's Truth Squad points out, Iranian leaders never threatened to nuke Israel or the United States, and they couldn't have because they deny pursuing nuclear weapons in the first place.
So how did Bachmann take being corrected? Rather than speak more carefully when she addressed the topic again, she decided to even exaggerate further (and frankly fall off the deep end) during last night's debate when she said:
"We know without a shadow of a doubt Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map. And they've stated that they will use it against the United States of America."
So no longer is she only alleging that Iran said things they actually didn't, but now we know "without a shadow of doubt" that the attack will happen, unless we do something about it. That's the sort of lying that makes the Iraq war propaganda of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld seem like honest straight-talk by comparison. Not content with that much, Bachmann (who, remarkably, sits on the House Intelligence Committee) sparred with Ron Paul over whether the IAEA said Iran was only months from being able to develop nuclear weapons and, sure enough, Bachmann turned out to be wrong.