Bachmann Confronts CNN Anchor Over 'Gotcha Question' on Homosexuality

On Tuesday morning, CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann squared-off in a somewhat uncomfortable on-air debate over a question about the contender's past statements on homosexuality.

In a dialogue on the network's "Starting Point," Bachmann called O'Brien's recap of her past statements and a subsequent question -- whether the candidate would like to "pull back" on any of her past controversial comments about homosexuality -- "a bizarre thing to bring up."

O'Brien said, in full, "You have taken a lot of flak for some of your very strong social issues, where you stand on them, and I want to talk about some of them. Your stance on homosexuality — and want to read a little bit of what you said — You said, at the Educators Conference in 2004, ‘Gays live a very sad life,’ and that ‘it’s part of Satan’ And that’s quote. You’ve taken a lot of flak for that. Do you pull back on any of that?”

Bachmann responded fairly quickly and pointedly:

“It’s a bizarre thing to bring up. Today is the election, what people recognize is that the most important issue that people will be looking at is, ‘Who is the best person to deal with the economy?’ Probably someone who’s created the a business from scratch. I came from a family where I was below poverty. I had to earn my way up out of poverty.”

The awkwardness doesn't end there. O'Brien counters that she doesn't see her question as "bizarre" and that she believes it to be "fair." Bachmann then dismisses it as "a gotcha question coming way out of the past." This is reminiscent of Rick Santorum's dialogue with FOX News' Shepard Smith yesterday surrounding the very same subject.

Watch the exchange that Mediaite dubbs "a tussle," below:

(H/T: Mediaite)