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Politics & Government

Bachmann Beat: A Spat with Drake University Students

An aggregated daily roundup of news and commentary about U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Sixth-district congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann found herself being lectured by Obama-supporting college students during a town hall event at Drake University.

Bachmann’s intention was to give students at the Campus Republicans-sponsored event a Conservative political primer, but she ended up engaging in somewhat hostile repartee with the assembled audience. 

One student grilled her on her opposition to national service programs and another criticized her support of offshore drilling.

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While she was criticizing “Obamacare,” one student shouted, "So screw the sick and homeless?"

"Who said that?" Bachmann asked.

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"You have," the student said.

"You could not be further from the truth," Bachmann responded. "You're looking at someone who lived below poverty. Have you ever lived at that?"

At a different event Thursday, Bachmann talked about the Solyndra scandal, which relates to government loans given to a solar-power company that went bankrupt.

Bachmann called for the firing of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

“Certainly I think that Secretary Chu, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see him fired,” she said. “But also I think this goes higher than that. This goes to the President of the United States. So I think the President of the United States has to answer questions.”

On CNN, she also criticized Obama for his handling of the removal of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power. She blamed Obama for the missing “MANPAD” missiles.

“But he wasn’t an immediate threat to the United States when Barack Obama went into Libya,” she said. “So the result of that has been we don’t know who will be in charge, we don’t know what type of chaos will ensue. There continues to be a lot of trouble in Libya. Even more importantly we have the MANPADS that have gone missing, and potentially chemical weapons as well. This is a very real threat. If we have a commercial airliner or a military airline come down as a result of one of those MANPADS that will be a disastrous consequence of the president’s failed decision to go into Libya. And he did it without Congressional approval.”

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