Hardball Gone Mad: Congresswoman Compared to Nazi for Insisting Media Cover Obama-Ayers Connection

October 21st, 2008 6:24 AM

On Friday night, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota appeared on Hardball and pounded away at Barack Obama’s associations with his long-time minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and bomber Bill Ayers, suggesting that the media should be investigating these associations with very anti-American voices, and that if John McCain had these associations, the media would be all over it. Chris Matthews couldn’t stand it. But he was nothing compared to others on the left – like the ones who started a Censure Bachmann website. Or raving left-wing talk show host Mike Malloy (the former CNN news writer!), who wildly associated the conservative Republican with Nazis, and death in general:

She represents a district in Minnesota, she's a Republican of course, and she’s a hatemonger. She’s the type of person that would have gladly rounded up the Jews in Germany and shipped them off to death camps. She’s the type of person who would have had no problem sending typhoid smeared blankets to Native American families awaiting deportation to reservations. She’s the type of person that I’m sure believes that the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam was good and the use of depleted uranium in Iraq served a purpose. This is an evil bitch from hell. I mean, just an absolute evil woman.

Click here for mp3 audio.

Malloy is wild enough to go on the radio and express his "violence fantasies" against Matt Drudge and White House press secretary Dana Perino. 

Matthews just could not believe that the Ayers connection is relevant: "What is wrong with it?...Why is it an important election-eve issue?" Bachmann kept hammering away at Obama’s troubling associations, ducking Matthews’ attempts to have her declare all liberals are anti-American:

MATTHEWS: Let me talk to you. What do the connections mean to you, this connection you're talking about between the Democratic candidate for president and his connection back in the '90s with Bill Ayers, who was involved with the Weathermen group back in the '60s and early '70s, when he was eight years old? What is your concern about that?

BACHMANN: I think it's devastating, because this is an unrepentant terrorist who says he wishes he would have bombed more people. Remember, this is a man who bombed the Pentagon and was happy to be bombing Americans as well. This is not a person that the president of the United States would want to be associated with.

Had John McCain been associated with Bill Ayers, it would have been a nightly story. It would have been everywhere. But the media's been kind of avoiding this story, and Barack Obama's been avoiding it too. He actually did start his state senate campaign in Bill Ayers' home, and Obama worked very closely with him on education matters -- very liberal, leftist agenda of education matters as well.

I think that it's important that the American people know that Barack Obama didn't have a mild association with Bill Ayers. He had a very strong association with Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers is not someone that the average American wants to see their president have an association with.

MATTHEWS: Why is it of concern? What is wrong with it? Tell me what it tells you about Barack Obama. Does it say he's got a character problem? Does it say he has a problem with his patriotism? Just give me a term for it so we can put it in a category. Why do you care enough to bring this up at the end of this campaign? Why is it an important election eve issue?

BACHMANN: I think it's important, Chris, because --

MATTHEWS: I mean, we've got a lot of problems in this country. Why is this so important that it's being pushed out on telephone calls to all the key states now with two weeks to go?

BACHMANN: It's important because we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had over his life, and usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us. And it seems that it calls into question what Barack Obama's true beliefs and values and thoughts are -- his attitudes, values and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of the United States --

MATTHEWS: Okay --

BACHMANN: -- which is negative; Bill Ayers, his negative view of the United States. We've seen one friend after another. It calls into question his judgment, but also what is it that Barack Obama really believes? And we know that he's the most liberal senator in the United States Senate, and that's just after one year after being there. He's the most liberal. Joe Biden is the third most liberal. You've got Harry Reid who's liberal, Nancy Pelosi who's liberal.

MATTHEWS: Right. What's the connection?

BACHMANN: You have a troika of the most leftist administration in the history of our country.

MATTHEWS: If you have liberal views, does that mean you have anti-American views? What's the connection? I don't get the connection. What's the connection between liberal and leftist and anti-American?

BACHMANN: Anti-American is the point, because --

MATTHEWS: I mean, if you're liberal, are you anti-American?

BACHMANN: Well, the liberals that are Jeremiah Wright and that are Bill Ayers, they're over-the-top anti-American. And that's the question that Americans have. Remember, it was Michelle Obama who said she's only recently proud of her country. And so these are very anti-American views.

MATTHEWS: Okay.

BACHMANN: That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans, Chris, are wild about America, and they're very concerned to have a president who doesn't share those values.

MATTHEWS: Okay, let's take a look at Governor Palin, because she said something very much like what you just said. Let's hear Governor Palin on the very same topic of the connection between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers and what that tells you about his view of America. Let's hear.

SARAH PALIN (on tape): Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country?

MATTHEWS: So you think that's a fair critique of Barack Obama, that his view of America is so -- that America is so imperfect that he pals around with terrorists. You think that's a fair comment.

REP. BACHMANN: It's a fair comment, because Barack Obama does have a close association with Bill Ayers. It's one that the American people have a right to have some answers to. And Barack Obama still hasn't come clean on his relationship with Bill Ayers. It's been under the radar, and only recently has it been coming out. And people need to know.

MATTHEWS: So this is a character issue. You believe that Barack Obama may -- you're suspicious because of this relationship -- may have anti-American views. Otherwise it's probably irrelevant to this discussion.

BACHMANN: Absolutely.

MATTHEWS: So you believe it brings into --

BACHMANN: I absolutely --

MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti- American views.

BACHMANN: Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views. That's what the American people are concerned about. That's why they want to know what his answers are. That's why Joe the plumber has figured so highly in the last few days --

MATTHEWS: Okay. I'm not going to get off this.

BACHMANN: -- because Joe the plumber asked a question that a lot of Americans want to know.

MATTHEWS: Sarah Palin was around today talking about pro- American parts of America, and assuming there's other non-parts of the country. What parts of America would you say are anti-American? What parts of this country?

BACHMANN: Well, I would say that people who hold anti- American views. I don't think it's geography. I think it's people who don't like America, who detest America. And on college campuses, a Ward Churchill, another college campus, a Bill Ayers, you find people who hate America. And unfortunately, some of these people have positions teaching in institutions of higher learning. But you'll find them in all walks of life all throughout America.

MATTHEWS: What about people like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the liberals you were mentioning a moment ago? Where would you put them? Would you consider them anti-American as well?

BACHMANN: I would consider them to have --

MATTHEWS: Are they anti-American?

BACHMANN: -- far leftist views. I'm not going to say that they're anti-American or pro-American.

MATTHEWS: The speaker of the House is --

BACHMANN: I will say the speaker --

MATTHEWS: Well, you were putting them together. You put three words together -- liberal, leftist and anti-American. How do they all fit together, those three terms -- liberal, leftist and anti- American?

BACHMANN: Well, that's a good descriptor for Jeremiah Wright. It's a perfect descriptor for Bill Ayers. And those are friends and people that Obama has pointed to as his mentors. In his book, Barack Obama had pointed to Jeremiah Wright as one of his mentors, and also Father Pfleger as one of his mentors. Two of the three mentors are Father Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright. Now, these are very strange, anti-American mentors.

MATTHEWS: Right. This --

BACHMANN: If people like that were John McCain's mentors, you'd be all over John McCain.

MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you this. This country is roughly divided now over the last -- all our lifetimes between Republicans and Democrats and liberals and conservatives. Maybe 30 percent of the country, 30 to 40 percent, is conservative, and self- described -- people tell you what they are -- and 30-some percent are liberals. Do you think those 30 percent liberals are anti-American? The 30 percent of this country that calls itself liberals, are they anti-American?

BACHMANN: I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large, the people who are radical leftists. That's the real question about Barack Obama -- Saul Alinsky, one of his teachers, you might say, out of the Chicago area; Tony Rezko, who is an associate also.

MATTHEWS: He's a leftist? I thought he was a business guy.

BACHMANN: These are very concerning figures that are in Barack Obama's past.

MATTHEWS: I thought Tony Rezko was some business guy. I didn't know he was a leftist, anti-American guy.

BACHMANN: Yeah, that's troubling too. Well, that's troubling too. Take a look at these associations, Chris, and add them all up --

MATTHEWS: Well, let me --

BACHMANN: -- and this is the totality of the package that Barack Obama has been, in Sarah Palin's words, palling around with. These are his friends. These are his associates. Very troubling.

MATTHEWS: How many Congress people, members of Congress, do you think are in that anti-American crowd you described? How many Congress people do you serve with? I mean, it's 435 members of Congress.

BACHMANN: Right now --

MATTHEWS: How many are anti-American in the Congress right now that you serve with?

BACHMANN: You'd have to ask them, Chris. I'm focusing on Barack Obama and the people that he's been associating with. And I'm very worried about --

MATTHEWS: But do you suspect that a lot of people you serve with --

BACHMANN: -- their anti-American nature.

MATTHEWS: Well, he's a United States senator from Illinois. He's one of the people you suspect as being anti-American. How many people in the Congress of the United States do you think are anti- American? You've already suspected Barack Obama. Is he alone, or are there others? How many do you suspect of your colleagues as being anti-American?

BACHMANN: What I would say -- what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.

MATTHEWS: Okay, thank you very much, U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.