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Now Bachmann’s spreading recount fiction

Back on national TV, the newly re-elected Sixth District congresswoman passes on discredited pre-recount tales and makes up some new ones.
By David Brauer

Thanks, Sixth District voters and Bob Anderson — you’ve subjected us to two more years of Michele Bachmann’s national TV interviews.

Last night’s Hannity & Colmes appearance was a doozy: Bachmann not only picked up the car-ballot fiction that other Republicans have sworn off, she mangled it and made up new falsehoods.

Here’s the video (there’s four minutes of non-recount stuff first), with an annotated transcript below:

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BACHMANN: [Franken] wants to stuff the ballot box with rejected ballots.

HANNITY: All right. He wanted to do that, we found, what, 30 some odd ballots in a car, and then we didn’t find them in the car, so there was some dispute over that. But more importantly it seems like every time that — this was before a recount even began.

Every county, these heavily Democratic counties started oops, oh we found a hundred votes here. We found 300 votes here. Why do I suspect funny business? And do you suspect it as a potential?

BACHMANN: Well, it’s interesting, and I think it calls into question what the record keeping is and who is watching the books, because two of these cases, one, Sean, that had a hundred votes deducted from Coleman, added to Franken, those 100 votes came after business hours when no one was around.

[Comment: Wrong. In both places that made simple tallying errors  — Pine County and Two Harbors — no Coleman votes were deducted. Also, in neither case did votes come in “after business hours.”]

Another one had 17 votes coming out of a Democratic county. Again, where it was after business hours where no one was around.

[Comment: If Bachmann is talking about Hennepin County’s ballots, she a) gets the number wrong — it’s 32 — and b) gets possession wrong. Election judges or the city’s election director had custody at all times.]

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Hey, Congresswoman, it’s Alan Colmes. Welcome to our show.

BACHMANN: Hi, Alan.

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COLMES: First of all, good to see you. The 32 — those votes have been discounted as — in terms of they’re legal, everybody even the lawyer for Coleman agrees they’re legal.

HANNITY: I said this.

COLMES: So if they’re going to go there, and steal 100 there or 17, they can do better, steal a thousand. You know? Do better than that.

BACHMANN: But isn’t it — isn’t it curious that all of these votes are for Franken?

COLMES: No, it’s not.

BACHMANN: There isn’t one vote found for Coleman?

[Comment: Wrong. Coleman picked up seven of the disputed Hennepin County votes, and county pre-recount canvasses picked up dozens of Coleman votes.]

COLMES: They found actually nine votes today for Coleman, but they’re not all for Franken.

BACHMANN: That’s on the actual recount where they were found.

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COLMES: On the recount. There should be a recount.

BACHMANN: Not in somebody’s trunk of their car.

COLMES: Well, there was nothing in the trunk of a car that was found to be untoward or inaccurate, or not countable. So that’s been discounted.