Team Bachmann says Iran embassy comment was 'hypothetical'

Michele Bachmann's team did a campaign version of a cleanup in aisle 9 tonight, trying to clarify a comment the congresswoman made earlier about how a Bachmann presidency wouldn't allow "an American embassy in Iran."

The comment left some observers scratching their heads, since the United States cut ties with Iran three decades ago.


As the comment took off on Twitter over the last few hours, Bachmann's team put out a statement noting her seat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence - and suggesting she was making a 'hypothetical' based on the developments involving the British embassy in Iran.

She "is fully aware that we do not have an embassy in Iran and have not had one since 1980. She was agreeing with the actions taken by the British to secure their embassy personnel and was speaking in the hypothetical, that if she was President of the United States and if we had an embassy in Iran, she would have taken the same actions as the British," the statement said.

"Her remarks are being taken out of context, given that she has spoken on this subject several times in the past 24 hours and made it clear that she knew we did not have an Iranian embassy," the statement said. "As she has previously stated, President Obama has taken his eye off of Iran, the most significant security threat in the region, and allowed them the luxury of time to move toward obtaining nuclear weapons. She will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons that would threaten our ally Israel and the United States.”

The flap over the remark followed what was widely received as a strong outing for Bachmann in the national security debate hosted by CNN in Washington last week.

This article tagged under: Michele Bachmann