Bachmann Refuses to Walk Back Claim of Obama ‘Gangster Government’

During an interview on Sunday's "Meet the Press," Tea Party Caucus leader Michele Bachmann (R-MN) refused to back down from previous (2009) comments characterizing the Obama administration as a "gangster government." She may have even doubled down.

"I don't take back my statement on gangster government," she told host David Gregory. "I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt, thoroughly corrupt."

"I believe the actions of this government have been emblematic of ones that have not been based on true American values," she added, before coming close to doubling down on her previous comments: "I think the president's actions in the last two years speak for themselves."

The appropriate segment is below:

You can also watch the entire segment, which features Bachmann frustrating Gregory when she sticks to talking points in response to some of his direct questions. The main talking point, however, was a stunner from Bachmann: $105 billion of secret Obamacare funding (appropriations). As NewsBusters points out, Gregory didn't seem to want to deal with that:

So now that Congress is searching for ways to cut the budget, a very good place to start would be with the 105 BILLION dollars in secret ObamaCare funding, However, David Gregory would rather stubbornly stick to his script about supposed dissension between Tea Party members and the GOP as well other relatively trivial matters.

You can see Bachmann call Obamacare a "crime against democracy" in the full interview below (which also features discussion of her 2012 plans):