Bachmann: Obama 'Laid the Table' for Arab Spring by 'Demonstrating Weakness' from the U.S.

Republican Michele Bachmann is laying blame for the so-called "Arab Spring" on President Barack Obama. According to the GOP presidential contender, Obama's stance on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks laid the groundwork for the uprisings against autocratic governments across the Arab world.

At a fundraiser Thursday in North Carolina, Bachmann traced the mass protests that sometimes turned deadly to Obama's call for Israel to return to negotiations and pull back to the territory it held prior to the 1967 war with Egypt. According to NBC News, she compared Obama's approach and policies to those of President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. She said:

"I am probably even more concerned about the foreign policy implications because of what Barack Obama has done to the nation.

Just like Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s didn't have the back of the Shah of Iran, we saw the Shah fall and the rise of the Ayatollah. And we saw the rise and the beginnings of radical Jihad which have changed this world and changed this nation."

Bachmann also said that the president "has laid the table for the Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness from the United States of America." She continued:

"So too under Barack Obama, we saw him put a lot of daylight between our relationship with our ally Israel. And when he called on Israel to retreat to its indefensible 1967 borders, don't think that message wasn't lost on Israel's 26 hostile neighbors."

Watch her comments, below:

The Arab spring protests stretched from Algeria in North Africa to Syria in the Middle East. Some led to political instability in nations with longstanding rulers.

Bachmann's campaign did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press for elaboration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.