Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Jeff Storjohann, Carroll Daily Times Herald
Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Jeff Storjohann, Carroll Daily Times Herald

Bachmann continues stonewalling journalists over ‘ex-gay’ accusations

By Andy Birkey
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:45 am

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is continuing her silence about reports on Monday that her family’s Christian counseling clinic performs “ex-gay” therapy to cure gays and lesbians of their homosexuality. Reporters for ABC and CNN were rebuffed in their efforts to get clarification from Bachmann, and a reporter with Mother Jones unsuccessfully tried an in-person interview with Bachmann.

CNN ran a story on Tuesday about undercover video taken at Bachmann & Associates that showed a counselor providing reparative therapy to an undercover activist posing as a client.

“Both Bachmann and her husband declined to discuss the clinic’s practices. A secretary at the clinic referred all questions to the Bachmann presidential campaign,” CNN wrote. “A sign on the center’s door says ‘no media.’”

ABC News, which was the first media outlet to release the undercover footage on Monday, followed up with Bachmann, but to no avail.

“Rep. Bachmann, her Congressional office, and her campaign staff remained silent on the issue — other than to say the congresswoman is proud of the Christian counseling center that she and her husband have co-owned since 2003,” ABC reported. “The center’s web site was unresponsive Tuesday.”

A reporter with ABC also spotted Bachmann outside the Capitol and attempted to follow up on the story. Bachmann refused.

Here’s a video clip of that encounter:

A reporter with Mother Jones magazine spotted Bachmann in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and tried to get an interview.

“Today, I encountered Bachmann near MoJo’s bureau in downtown DC,” wrote reporter Tim Murphy. “She was having lunch with an aide in a sandwich shop. After they departed the restaurant, I asked if she would respond to these recent reports. She said nothing—not a word—and would not even look in my direction. She kept walking at a brisk pace. I repeated the question a few times, as her aide tried to prevent me from getting too close to the congresswoman. The aide noted repeatedly that Bachmann was not taking questions. At no time did Bachmann break her stride.”

Here’s video of that encounter:

During an Iowa campaign stop Bachmann likewise refused to answer a local reporter’s questions about the “reparative therapy” the clinic does, and interview requests from the Today Show and ABC News were also dodged on Monday.

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Comments

18 Comments

Kevin
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 10:58 am

Oh yes Michele, continue that strategy of not answering questions. That always works well for the person who wants to be President of the United States.

Good job Michele!!


LadyKofOlmsted
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 11:06 am

The more she stays silent on this, the more questions will be asked.. ”Such as Mrs. Bachmann, what are you hiding and WHY?”


Dog is my Shepherd
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 11:17 am

I imagine that her stonewalling and denial will work as well as it did for Anthony Weiner. lol.


Molly
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 3:06 pm

Dear Michele:
1) Gay is something a person *is*, not something one *does*. One doesn’t make the choice to be gay, but one can make the choice to live life in the closet.
2) Your husband is so far in the closet he’s eating turkish delight with the white witch right now.


ray
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 5:26 pm

ah the first time you could get her to shut up kudos


r.c.e.
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 7:09 pm

“I am focused jobs and job creation” Excuse me as jump into my Toyota speed away. By the way what’s with the “Girl-on-girl action” like back rub, on the way to the car?


Mykelb
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 7:15 pm

Ms. Bachmann, what have you to say about the group from whom you take thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars, the certified anti-gay hate group American Family Association who controls the “Leader”, the group that put together that fascist diatribe you signed last week? Why is your marriage better than anyone elses on a secular level? Aren’t they all legal contracts? Or is your law degree just as bogus as your husband’s “Ph.D.”?


Mykelb
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 7:21 pm

Bachmann is a liar wrapped in a false American flag and flinging a buybull at her audience. She is a welfare (i.e. government grants, medicare payments, and farm subsidies) queen who cultivates the ignorant religionists to gain a seat in congress. She’s a sham and she and her husband have defrauded the American public of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and they both should be roundly thrown out of any consideration for public office or economic benefit from our society.


Roman
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 7:45 pm

Bachmann needs to be held accountable and answer these serious questions that speak to her credibility.


Jeff Wilfahrt
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 8:14 pm

I can’t help but wonder what sort of pork Bachmann may have brought home to the sixth district. She’s obviously not busy writing bills, she’s has had a history of missing votes, she’s brought some bacon home to her family business… who else has benefitted from the public trough in the sixth besides the Bachmann family. Whether it is some or none it is newsworthy.

Big Hair and Bad Makeup Bachmann for President? I don’t think so.

Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN


Charles
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 10:07 pm

I’m wondering when anybody from the right will come up with a justification for all this. Is there any criminal investigation in progress? Taking Medicare for fake treatment is illegal, after all.


John Fenn
Comment posted July 13, 2011 @ 10:37 pm

All Democrats open your checkbooks and send money immediately to Bachmann. Her nomination would absolutely assure Obama for four more.


marie
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 8:26 am

Jeff Wilfahrt…. All extremely valid questions. the actual deceptions on her business that is half in her name besides!


Rextrek
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 9:31 am

saw this quote from another commentor..its priceless:

The Family Leader – Strengthening our families by trying to destroy yours.”


LadyKofOlmsted
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 10:13 am

The facts about Marcus Bachmann’s educational background is coming out more and more. This man is a QUACK!!!

The fact is known that Marcus Bachmann has no State mandated license nor is Board Certified to operate such a clinic that counsels patients with drug and Alcohol addictions, Mental Health disorders, etc.

On his website Dr. Bachmann states he’s had 23 years experience in Clinincal Pschyology. Infact, Marcus Bachmann’s Ph.D, if he has one, IS NOT in Clinical Pschyology at all from the Union Graduate School..But in Arts and Sciences prior to 1986. After 1986, the Post-Graduate degree would have been in Interdisciplinary Studies.The Union School iwas a Correspondence College
.
If in fact Dr. Marcus Bachmann graduated from this institute, whatever it was named at the time, he would not have graduated with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. The ONLY doctorate in Clinical Psychology was offered after 2001, and the degree is a Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology) and not a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). The Union Graduate School was later dissolved.

So what kind of Dr. is Marcus Bachmann really? The Internet is fuill of interesting information about this clinic and how it manages to reap money from the Federal Government annually in Medicaid payments.

Sounds shady to me.

So someone does not have their facts straight. Of course no one from Bachmann & Associates are talking.


Mike
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 11:07 am

Hey, found this online and it really fits Michele rather well. PATHOLOGICAL

So really, when people call her names like ‘Nut Job’ and ‘Wacko’… they aren’t too far off.

Level 1 – Pathological

The mechanisms on this level, when predominating, almost always are severely pathological. These four defenses, in conjunction, permit one to effectively rearrange external experiences to eliminate the need to cope with reality. The pathological users of these mechanisms frequently appear irrational or insane to others. These are the “psychotic” defenses, common in overt psychosis. However, they are found in dreams and throughout childhood as well.

They include:

Delusional Projection: Grossly frank delusions about external reality, usually of a persecutory nature.

Denial: Refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening; arguing against an anxiety-provoking stimulus by stating it doesn’t exist; resolution of emotional conflict and reduction of anxiety by refusing to perceive or consciously acknowledge the more unpleasant aspects of external reality.

Distortion: A gross reshaping of external reality to meet internal needs.

Splitting: A primitive defense. Negative and positive impulses are split off and unintegrated. Fundamental example: An individual views other people as either innately good or innately evil, rather than a whole continuous being.

Extreme projection: The blatant denial of a moral or psychological deficiency, which is perceived as a deficiency in another individual or group.


cb
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 6:36 pm

Michele Bachmann and her husband are both very far out. Not good for the U.S. She is running on her own “gay agenda” platform. We are closing schools, laying people off. Family’s are being foreclosed on and being put out in the streets. And all this Republican running for President and her husband can do is talk about is “praying away the gay”. It is a good money maker for her, but we have bigger things to do, and I am hopping God has to. If you or your church has the gay agenda on your mind, all the time you may need to set down and talk with someone. We need to start looking at what is best for the country. Not our own religion’s views.


Prop 8 Trial Tracker » Amazing Shift In Party Attitudes On Marriage Equality
Pingback posted July 24, 2011 @ 11:23 am

[...] It may take a while for these insiders in the GOP to influence their party. Republican “idiots” continue to mount quixotic grandstanding stunts on the issue. They are doing what the GOP does best, tossing red meat to the base. GOP Presidential candidates, too, have been gleefully feeding the Religious Right base what they want to hear in pursuit of the 2012 nomination. (Although Michele Bachmann, never before the least shy about her hatred of the gays, appears now, uncharacteristically unwilling to talk.) [...]


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