Bachmann blames Chris Matthews for ‘anti-America’ remark

Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke with Fox 9 News on Monday morning in an attempt to clarify her statements calling for a media investigation into ‘anti-America’ views of members of Congress. She said that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews brought up the word “anti-American,” and that Bachmann merely meant “radical liberals” when she said: “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?”

Bachmann contends she was only insinuating that members of Congress might have anti-American views, not that she felt they actually hold such views.

Here is the transcript of Bachmann’s interview Monday morning with Fox 9′s Alix Kendall:

This weekend your campaign said your statement was misunderstood. So what did you mean to say exactly?

What I’m concerned about as this election is going forward is the appalling lack of curiosity that the national media has about Barack Obama’s views and about the view that we’re going to have from Congress if we have a radical liberal in the White House and liberals controlling both the House and the Senate.

Barack Obama is ranked the No. 1 most liberal senator in the United States, Nancy Pelosi is the head of the House, Harry Reid is the head of the Senate. We have never had this concentration of liberal leadership in Washington, coming up this November, if this is what the result of the election will be.”

Does being liberal mean that you are anti-American?

No. I appreciate this opportunity because I’m hoping people will look at the context of the full interview. Because I did not suggest anti-American, Chris Matthews used the word “anti-American” and asked me to respond to it.

So what I was telling Chris Matthews is that the media needs to look at Barack Obama and the media needs to look at members of Congress.

(Matthews) wanted to know if I thought that members of Congress were anti-American, and what I told him was that that’s not up for me to decide — the media should make that expose — that’s not my call.

So this has been completely misconstrued to say that I believe members of Congress are anti-American. I never said that. I said the media should look into it.

I also didn’t say that Barack Obama is anti-American. What I said is that the media should look into his views.

And that’s what they’re really upset about right now, because I’m calling on the media to take a look at what these positions are going to mean for people. I mean, after all, they haven’t been silent about what they believe.

Barack Obama is calling for socialized medicine, radical increases in taxes. That’s what Joe the Plumber was all about. Joe the Plumber asked Barack Obama about punishing tax increases and that’s really the story that’s going unreported right now.

What is being anti-American to you? Why don’t you explain that?

Well, anti-American was Chris Matthews’ comment, that wasn’t me. He was the one that brought up anti-American — I didn’t.

I was talking about views that are very concerning to the American people, such as when Barack Obama said to Joe the Plumber he wants to spread the wealth around. But redistribution of wealth is a radically different concept on the economy than the current concept we have with the free market.

We want people to be able to make money, keep it, grow themselves in the middle class…that’s what Joe the Plumber was concerned about and that’s a complete difference if you look at what’s going on with are economy, if you look at redistribution of wealth.

Gen. Colin Powell is backing Barack Obama. He denounced your statements as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Both say this is going too far, and apparently your comments…

It would be if that’s what I said, but I didn’t say it. What I’m saying is that I am concerned about what his ideas are and that the media needs to investigate them. And they have a deplorable lack of curiosity.