Bachmann: 'Crying' mother shared HPV story

Michele Bachmann again accused Rick Perry of practicing "crony capitalism" Tuesday morning, appearing on NBC's "Today" show to criticize Perry for seeking to force "innocent little 12-year-old girls or 11-year-old girls" to take a "potentially dangerous" vaccine injection.

Repeating criticism she leveled at Perry in Monday night's debate, Bachmann noted that Perry's former chief of staff had been a lobbyist for Merck when Perry tried to mandate the use of a Merck-produced vaccine for HPV.


And this time, Bachmann added a bracing story that she said a woman told her in Florida overnight.

"I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Fla., after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter," Bachmann said.

She continued: "The mother was crying what she came up to me last night. I didn't know who she was before the debate. This is the very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions."

Asked if she would continue to hammer away at the HPV issue, Bachmann said it was an appropriate way to draw "very real distinctions" with Perry over the use of executive power.

"You can't abuse executive authority with executive orders, because there could be very negative consequences that the American people have to pay," she said. "There is no second chance for these little girls if there is any dangerous consequences to their bodies."