Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and likened the actions of rival Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, when he mandated the HPV vaccination to those of President Obama in the ongoing Solyndra scandal, while also discussing other hot-button issues related to her campaign.
Leno pressed Bachmann on her anecdote about a woman who Bachmann says told her that HPV vaccination caused “mental retardation” in her daughter. Leno noted that the situation would seem to be unique, pointing out that:
Bachmann explained that she met the woman in a casual encounter while greeting audience members after the presidential debate in Tampa, Fla., and saying “Well, I wasn’t speaking as a doctor. I wasn’t speaking as a scientist. I was just relating what this woman said.”
But then Bachmann converted the question into an opportunity to attack Perry, even associating him by analogy with the recent scandal plaguing the Obama Administration.
Solyndra, of course, is the solar power company backed by a fundraising bundler for President Obama that declared bankruptcy this month despite receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. Internal administration emails show that bureaucrats warned the White House that the company would likely fail – a warning neglected when the government backed Solyndra in a way that protected the private investors.
Bachmann also defended her opposition to gay marriage, explaining that “the family is foundational and marriage between a man and a woman has been what the law has been for years and years.”
You can watch her conversation with Leno about Perry and HPV in the video below.
