Michele Bachmann knows the United States does not have an embassy in Iran.
That’s what the Minnesota Congresswoman’s spokeswoman said in an email to reporters Wednesday night after Bachmann suggested she would shut down the (nonexistent) American embassy in the country if she were elected president.
Speaking to prospective voters in Iowa earlier in the day, Bachmann said the United Kingdom’s decision to remove its diplomats from Tehran after an attack on their embassy this week was the right thing to do.
“That’s exactly what I would do [if I were president],” Bachmann said, according to reports. “We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”
The only problem? The United States hasn’t had an embassy in Iran since 1980.
Bachmann’s spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, clarified later:
“Congresswoman Bachmann is a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and 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. 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.”
Herman Cain on Libya this is not, but it’s still not the best moment for the self-professed “gaffe-free” candidate.
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.
As usual, her handlers know (or can look up) far more than she does.
Taken out of context?? Not at all. There was nothing in her choice of words how she spoke them that could be construed as a “hypothetical” conclusion. It is very clear that at that moment, she certaily believed we had an embassy in Iran; and had no idea that we we have been out of there for more than 20 years. As she often is, she was once again misinformed when she spoke.