In full-on damage control mode, Michele Bachmann sat down with WCCO’s Esme Murphy Sunday for an interview about the media firestorm occasioned by her claim on Hardball Friday that Barack Obama and unspecified members of Congress harbor views that Bachmann called “anti-American.”

Bachmann hewed to her official line that her comments were “misread,” but the most interesting segment of the interview concerned a subject that Bachmann wasn’t expecting — the recent disclosure that Bachmann wrote, and later withdrew, a presidential pardon request on behalf of convicted felon Frank Vennes Jr., who is implicated (though not yet charged) in the unfolding Tom Petters financial fraud scandal.

Now that Bachmann is eliciting heightened scrutiny from many quarters, will “Pardongate” crack the mainstream media news cycle too? Karl Bremer has written three pieces about the Bachmann/Vennes connection for MnIndy: Bachmann’s pardon-gate: More about her letter withdrawing pardon request for Petters associate Vennes; Michele Bachmann: Granting a pardon to campaign donor and ex-con Petters associate Vennes is ‘good for society’; Bachmann’s office claims she donated at least one Petters-tainted campaign contribution to charity.

Two vids — the full interview, and the Vennes-related excerpt — below the jump.

Esme Murphy, WCCO-TV: Full Michele Bachmann interview (6:14)

Excerpt: Bachmann on her withdrawn pardon request for Frank Vennes Jr. (1:32)