Minnesota Congressional District 6 >> *Top Stories

Election night with the Minnesota GOP: The Michele Bachmann Show

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One of the undisputed stars of the Minnesota Republican Party was, and will remain to be, Michele Bachmann. Her penchant for outrageous comments coupled with a hard-right bent has earned her intense scrutiny from the media and strong support from Republican activists.

With the results of her race against DFL and Independent endorsed candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg still in doubt Bachmann entered the ballroom floor relatively early in the evening to talk with a select few members of the media.

Bachmann stopped to talk with former Minnesota Sen. Rudy Boschwitz and conservative talk show host Jason Lewis.

Lewis appeared to suggest that if Bachmann had tied her controversial comments about Barack Obama and some of her congressional coleagues holding "anti-American" views to the KKK and individuals such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney then more of the public would have understood.

Sometime after midnight, Tinklenberg conceded and Bachmann delivered her acceptance speech to roaring approval. Minnesota GOP Chair Ron Carey was particularly fired up for the occasion. Many late polls had Bachmann trailing Tinklenberg.

Bachmann mixes official and campaign business in St. Cloud

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With three days until the election, Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) toured the St. Cloud VA Hospital along with the visiting Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake.

The event was billed as official business for Bachmann but a group of veterans, who support Bachmann's DFL and Independence endorsed challeger Elwyn Tinklenberg, called on Bachmann's campaign to refund the tax payers and pay for the event with campaign money.

After remarks by Sec. Peake and Congresswoman Bachmann, both were questioned about the timing and nature of the event. St. Cloud VA Public Affairs Officer Joan Vincent indicated that the event was scheduled six weeks ago by the Secretary's office and Bachmann stated her office put in the request for the visit several months ago..

Despite indicating that she would take questions once outside of the press conference, Bachmann avoided campaign-related questions from an Associated Press reporter. Bachmann and her staff boarded a bus for the short ride to the VA's main building to continue the tour. After stepping off of the bus Bachmann refused to comment on the veterans accusations.

Less than two hours later, Bachmann held a campaign event a few miles away at the Minnesota GOP's St. Cloud Victory Office.

Contrast In styles: Minnesota candidates meet the press

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There was no mystery as to who the media star was after two Minnesota Public Radio hosted congressional debates. In a chaotic scene, reporters crowded around 6th District Republican incumbent Rep. Michele Bachmann after her debate with DFL challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg.

One Bachmann supporter proudly yelled to the press "she is a pitbull in lipstick!"

Inside the lobby of MPR, a much more subdued scene had Tinklenberg taking questions from a gaggle if reporters for over ten minutes.

By the time 2nd District Republican incumbent Rep. John Kline finished his debate with DFL challenger Steve Sarvi, most of the press had vanished. When approached by The UpTake, Rep. Kline refused to take questions.

Audio of Kline/Sarvi debate can be found here

Audio of Bachmann/Tinklenberg debate can be found here

Bachman: "Not All Cultures Are Equal"

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Rep. Michele Bachmann caught the national spotlight recently when she told MSNBC's Chris Mathews that Barack Obama "may have anti-American views."

While Bachmann's statement may have come as a surprise to people outside of her home district in central Minnesota, she has a history of making statements that are inflammatory, controversial and requiring further explanation. Up until now, the most famous of those was her assertion that there was a plan already in place to partition Iraq and give half of it to Iran. She later said her comments had been "misconstrued", but did not elaborate.

One comment that she has never explained was made in a debate she had while running for Congress the first time in November of 2005. Prompted by the rioting that was going on in France at the time, Bachmann said "not all cultures are equal, not all values are equal." and implied heavily that people of the Muslim faith had an inferior culture to that of the United States.

Her statement has not been seen outside of that debate room until now. Here is the transcript of that exclusive video from The UpTake.

Minnesota Republican 6th Congressional District Debate sponsored by the Taxpayers League- November 2005.

Moderator: Given the recent rioting in France that is the result of a sub-culture that has not assimilated, what would you do to make sure that a similar situation does not take place in America?

(Edit)
Michele Bachmann: I just want to say only in France, only in France could you have suburban youth rioting because the welfare benefits aren’t generous enough. And that’s… That’s what they’re telling us now is happening there. And only in France could that happen.

And what we’re seeing is just the fruits of leftism. It’s suburbanites, the kids, that are watching cable TV, Did you know that? In a lot of these high rises where a lot of the suburban youth are doing writing or doing they have cable TV in their apartments. They’re listening to Al-jazirah, and they’re being encouraged and prompted to go ahead and start these riots all over France.

There is a movement afoot that’s occurring and part of that is whole philosophical idea of multi-cultural diversity, which on the face sounds wonderful. Let’s appreciate and value everyone’s cultures. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal.

And one thing that we’re seeing is that in the midst of this violence that’s being encouraged by Al-jazirah and by the jihadists that’s occurring., is that we are seeing that those who are coming into France –which had a beautiful culture – the French culture is actually diminished. It’s going away. And just with the population of France they are losing Western Europeans and it’s being taken over by muh…by a Muslim ethic . Not that Muslims are bad. But they are not assimilating.

And that’s what I had mentioned in my previous response is that America is a great nation, with great values. We are equal opportunity for all. And it’s because we all came here and we came together as one. Out of many one. Multi-cultural diversity says out of one many. And if we go with tribalism we will not long be one nation united under God.