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Far-right Extremism

Bachmann Courts The Birther Vote

While Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann raised eyebrows after consistently (link is external)and wrongly asserting (link is external)that the Battles of Lexington and Concord occurred in New Hampshire, rather than Massachusetts (and later implying that Bay Staters were not proud(link is external) of the American Revolution), the birther website WorldNetDaily was touting an interview(link is external) between Bachmann and right-wing radio personality Jeff Katz.

“I am concerned about the future of this country; I am concerned about the existence of the country my dad handed down to me,” said Katz, “And just yesterday my boys brought home the signup sheets for little league and I’m looking through them and I realize I have to provide more documentation for them to go and play tee ball in little league than the president ever had to provide.”

Bachmann replied, “I’ll tell you one thing, if I was ever to run for president of the United States, I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate so we can get that off the table.”

Such statements may play well among Republican voters, over half(link is external) of whom don’t believe Obama was born in the U.S.

Republican legislators in eleven states(link is external) have introduced legislation based on the birther conspiracy theory, and Mike Huckabee has even raised doubts(link is external) about Obama’s heritage. In Maine, the Tea Party candidate running against Olympia Snowe for Senate announced his campaign by flaunting his birth certificate at the Conservative Political Action Conference.