Former Minnesota Congressperson and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has announced that she is considering running for the Senate seat vacated by Al Franken, though she noted that she is waiting on God for final counsel before making a decision.
Appearing on disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker's show over the holiday weekend, Bachmann, the co-founder of Congress' ill-fated Tea Party caucus, told the religious broadcaster, "The only reason I would run is for the ability to take these principles into the United States senate, and be able to advocate for these principles." She added, "The question is, should it be me, should it be now — but there's a price you pay, and the price is bigger than ever because the swamp is so toxic."
She then enumerated the many ways in which someone who advocates for "Biblical principles in D.C." and "is not a money person" may be prevented from working freely on Capitol Hill, including "frivolous lawsuits." Bachmann has been under investigations for unethical business dealings both inside and outside of Congress.
"I trust in a big God," she added. "He got us over those finish lines — but I also believe I was supposed to run for president." She then claimed that the Almighty had selected her for her 2012 presidential run, not in order to actually wrest the White House from President Barack Obama, but to center the repeal of Obamacare on the Republican platform.
"I didn't run because I thought I was going to win," she said. "I ran to put the whole issue of Obamacare front in center before the American people." As to this, she said, "I feel like I was wildly successful," because by the time she left the race, all other GOP candidates, "were forced to take my position of repeal."
"I didn’t win," she added, "but I moved the debate. So I didn’t shed a tear when I left the contest because I felt like, you know, I fulfilled the calling that God gave me." While Obamacare, known officially as the Affordable Care Act, has been hobbled by the efforts of the GOP-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump, it remains law.
Speaking about whether the Most High had future political plans for her — specifically, a candidacy in the upcoming race for Franken's former seat — Bachmann rhetorically asked, "So the question is am I being called to do this now?" She added "I don’t know," but said that she could, "handle the job."
In the 2012 presidential primaries, Bachmann collected only 4.98 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, good for sixth place. She was officially out of the race by January. She narrowly won re-election to Congress that same year. Facing ethics charges and the near collapse of the Tea Party movement, she announced in 2013 that she would not seek a another term.
Since leaving politics, Bachmann has remained somewhat visible through appearances on right-wing media outlets, associations with right-leaning religious groups and support of Trump's campaign and administration on mainstream outlets. In recent years, she has continued to support her husband's religious counseling service among other ventures.
In response to Bachmann's statement, Bakker said that the current political and media climate is, "a fight to the death." He continued, "right now, they want to kill the president of the United States and if they could put a contract — which they probably already have — they would do so."
Despite her past disappointments, controversies and the fact that Bachmann was most likely sustained in Congress through her placement in the highly conservative 6th Minnesota district, it is not beyond imagining that she could indeed run for and win the Senate seat that will now be occupied by Tina Smith. After all, Trump did take the White House in spectacular fashion in 2016.
See the whole segment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=ci-ES4yKl0U
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