Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) presidential campaign says critics are making much ado about nothing when it comes to her viral quote stating last week’s East Coast earthquake and hurricane was a message from God to overspending DC politicians.
“Obviously she was saying it in jest,” campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart told TPM in a statement.
The quote, made by Bachmann at a Florida campaign rally over the weekend, is making headlines across the Internet and TV.
Here’s what she said, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times:
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
Here’s video of the moment from CNN this morning, which played it as a joke. But the St. Petersburg Times did not report it as a joke, and it made the rounds this morning as a straight quote.
Her campaign insists it was all in good fun.
This post has been updated to include the link to video of Bachmann’s remark.
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Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.