Michele Bachmann won't run for re-election: Remembering her most racially-tinged remarks (and more)

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Conservative congresswoman Michele Bachmann has announced that she does not intend to seek re-election in 2014, bringing one of the most polarizing and controversial tenures in recent Washington history to an end. In honor of this moment theGrio has compiled some of the Minnesota representative’s most provocative remarks on race, politics and the president.

Bachmann on the Founding Fathers

“We know there was slavery that was still tolerated when the nation began, we know that was an evil and a stain upon our history but we also know that the same men who wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the U.S.”

Bachmann on Obamacare:

“The American people, especially vulnerable women, vulnerable children, vulnerable senior citizens now to get to pay more and they get less. Let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.”

Bachmann on President Obama:

Rep. Michele Bachmann called President Barack Obama “the most dangerous president we’ve had on national security,” in light of his tactics such as the purported terrorist “kill lists” and the alleged “Terror Tuesday” meetings.

Bachmann on Obama overseas trip:

“The president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day,” Bachmann said. “He’s taking 2,000 people with him.”

Bachmann on the Obama administration

“What I’m doing is saying that the decisions that Barack Obama [are] making is acting like a banana republic.” she said.

Bachmann on slavery:

“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American president.”

Bachmann on President Obama and Hawaii:

“We want to win Hawaii,” she said. “And we think that there is a certain Hawaiian president who should go back to Hawaii!”

Bachmann on the president’s handling of the economy:

“The president doesn’t seem to have an understanding of how the economy works. It doesn’t seem that he has a basic understanding of how to do the job of president of the United States.”

Bachmann on the president’s handling of minorities:

“This president has failed the Hispanic community. He has failed the African-American community,” said Bachmann. “He has failed us all when it comes to jobs.”

Bachmann on the country turning into a “nation of slaves”

“We are determined to live free or not at all. And we are resolved that posterity shall never reproach us with having brought slaves into the world,” Bachmann said quoting Founding Father John Jay. We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves,” she said.

Bachmann on adopting African-American babies

“It is horrific to know that in the African-American community, 50 percent of all African-American pregnancies in the United States end in abortion, 50 percent. That is a genocide of African-Americans of the United States. It should not be. There are Americans all across this country who would love to adopt African-American babies, but they can’t because 50 percent of all African American pregnancies today are ending in abortion.”

Bachmann on the black farmers’ USDA settlement

“When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.”

Bachmann on linking swine flu to Democrats:

“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.”

Bachmann on President Obama’s taking military action in Libya:

“The only reports that we have say that there are elements of Al Qaeda in North Africa and Hezbollah in the opposition forces, Let me ask you this: What possible benefit is there to the United States by lifting up and creating a toehold for Al Qaeda in North Africa to take over Libya?” She then declared, “I don’t think [President Obama] on our side anymore.”

Bachmann on the president’s “lavish lifestyle”:

“This is a lifestyle that is one of excess. Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really, really late show. And I don’t mean to be petty here, but can’t they just push the play button? We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the president’s dog, paying for someone to walk the president’s dog?”

Bachmann on Michelle Obama’s push for mothers to breastfeed:

“For them, government is the answer to every problem,” Bachmann said. “And so government got us in this problem, and so they think government is going to get us out of the problem. Clearly they’re wrong. To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You wanna talk about the nanny state, I think you just got a new definition.”

Bachmann on “gangster governments”:

“When government comes in and decides who the winners are, who the losers are and there’s no recourse, that’s what happened to 3,400 dealerships across the country. That’s one example of gangster government.”