Michele Bachmann refutes Mitt Romney endorsement report

He runs the PAC RT @StuartRoy: Min invest yields win head 2 head w/ romney MT @chucktodd Santorum SuperPAC up with new ad in MO

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Michele Bachmann Drops Out of Presidential Race

Rep. Michele Bachmann will "suspend her campaign" a senior campaign officials tells ABC News, just hours after placing last in the Iowa caucuses and vowing to continue in South Carolina.

Bachmann finished sixth in Tuesday's Iowa caucus.

Iowa  has played a visible and vital role in Bachmann's campaign since its inception.

It became the backdrop of her presidential bid when in June she announced her candidacy in her hometown of Waterloo.

It became the springboard for her stint, albeit short-lived, as the GOP frontrunner after she secured the top spot at the Ames Straw Poll in August.

And today it became the insurmountable hurdle that ended her run for the White House after she finished dead last among the GOP candidates competing in the Iowa caucus.

Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, emerged on the national political scene riding the wave of Tea Party activism. As the founder of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, Bachmann's socially conservative, family-oriented approach initially captured the support of the staunch conservatives and evangelical Christians.

Bachmann has five children of her own and has taken in 23 foster children.

She supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman and opposes abortion under any circumstances. She came under fire in June after a gay patient treated at the C hristian counseling center Bachmann and her husband own told ABC News that the clinic tried to "pray the gay away" using so-called reparative therapy.

She also took some heat after implying that the HPV vaccine, which rival candidate Rick Perry mandated as Texas governor, could cause mental retardation in young girls, a claim the American Academy of Pediatrics said was had "absolutely no scientific validity."

When it comes to the economy, which the majority of voters say is their No. 1 issue this cycle, Bachmann touts her experience as a "federal tax litigation attorney" aka tax evasion prosecutor for the IRS.

Her tax code tag line is often that every American should pay at least some income taxes, rather than just 47 percent who currently pay them. Bachmann says that broadening the tax base will pay for tax breaks for high-income earners.

Bachmann's 11-point jobs and tax proposal, the "American Jobs, Right Now" blueprint, also calls for ending taxes on repatriated profits and expanding domestic energy production.

The Minnesota congresswoman claimed that Perry's flat tax plan, which he announced in October, is an "imitation" of her plan.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; thank you Governor Perry for using my ideas for your tax plan," Bachmann posted on her Facebook wall shortly after Perry announced his plan.

After a similarly poor showing at the Iowa caucus Tuesday, Perry said he will take a few days off to "determine if there is a path forward for myself in this race."

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Michele Bachmann quits presidential race following poor showing in Iowa

Bachmann (Eric Gay/AP)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa--Michele Bachmann announced her exit from the presidential race Wednesday morning following a sixth-place finish in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa.

"Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice. And so I have decided to stand aside," the Republican representative from Minnesota told reporters during a morning media availability here at the Marriott hotel.

Despite Bachmann's extensive, last-minute tour to visit all 99 of Iowa's counties, her first place finish in the Aug. 13 straw poll, and the state being her place of birth, Iowa Republican caucus voters rejected Bachmann's campaign, handing her 6,073 votes on caucus night--5 percent of the total votes cast in Tuesday night's caucuses.

As recently as Tuesday evening, Bachmann was dismissing questions about whether a poor finish in Iowa would prompt her immediate departure from the race, saying her campaign's travel tickets were already booked for South Carolina--her next major campaign stop after largely passing over New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

But communications director Alice Stewart told reporters following the news conference that conversations began last night about whether to continue the campaign and the congresswoman asked for time to "sleep on it" and "pray about it." Stewart said she was awoken early Wednesday morning with the news.

Stewart rejected the suggestion that campaign finance challenges factored into the congresswoman's decision.

"She doesn't see where she made mistakes," Stewart said. "None of us, you know, see where there were mistakes made." In response to question about how her campaign dropped from her high at the Ames Straw Poll, Stewart noted that there were fewer candidates in the race at that time.

The congresswoman has not yet discussed whether she will run for re-election in Minnesota, Stewart said.

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Michele Bachmann’s Pakistan nuclear intelligence source revealed

Did Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) divulge classified information in discussing the vulnerability of Pakistani nuclear sites to jihadists at Tuesday's GOP presidential debate?

Asked by CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer if the United States should continue providing foreign aid to Pakistan, Bachmann--a member of the House Intelligence panel--showed she knows her Pakistan brief.

"Pakistan has been the epicenter of dealing with terrorism," she said. "It is one of the most violent, unstable nations that there is."

Then--perhaps prompted by the fairly fluent and informed response on Pakistan given by former China envoy Jon Huntsman on the issue--Bachmann went on to cite some eyebrow-raising concerns posed by the unstable, nuclear-armed south Asian nation:

"We have to recognize that 15 of the sites, nuclear sites are available or are potentially penetrable by jihadists," Bachmann said. "Six attempts have already been made on nuclear sites.  This is more than an existential threat.  We have to take this very seriously."

Live-blogging the debate last night, your Yahoo News correspondent wondered if that information might have come from a classified intelligence briefing. And evidently, said correspondent did not wonder alone:

Bachmann's contention that Islamist jihadists have made six attempts to seize Pakistani nuclear sites "is not information that's ever been made public!" Gawker wrote, linking to a debate post by National Journal's Yochi Dreazen. "Which raises the question: did Bachmann just leak classified information to a national audience?"

Well, apparently the answer is no.

The information came not from a classified intelligence briefing but, rather, from a recent article by Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder in the Atlantic Monthly--a sister site of the National Journal--according to the Huffington Post.

As Goldberg and Ambinder reported in their Pakistan dispatch:

"At least six facilities widely believed to be associated with Pakistan's nuclear program have already been targeted by militants. [...] If jihadists are looking to raid a nuclear facility, they have a wide selection of targets: Pakistan is very secretive about the locations of its nuclear facilities, but satellite imagery and other sources suggest that there are at least 15 sites across Pakistan at which jihadists could find warheads or other nuclear materials."

Bachmann concluded her Pakistan response at Tuesday's debate by characterizing the troubled south Asian nation as "too nuclear too fail." That phrase apparently originated with Brookings South Asia expert Stephen P. Cohen, who shared the coinage with Ambinder and Goldberg, the Huffington Post notes.

In any event, government secrecy expert Steve Aftergood waved off concerns that Bachmann would have gotten herself in much trouble with the disclosure, regardless of its genesis.

"Ironically, I think Bachmann may be protected by the presumption that whatever the candidates say in this campaign is likely to be exaggerated and unreliable," Aftergood, with the Federation of American Scientists, told Yahoo News by email Wednesday. "So any official action to rebuke her for disclosing classified information would backfire.  It would tend to validate her statement."

"I don't know whether there are '15 nuclear sites' in Pakistan that may be at risk," he added "And having heard Rep. Bachmann's remarks, I still don't know."

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Jimmy Fallon apologizes to Michele Bachmann for offensive song

Bachmann and Fallon (via NBC)

Late night host Jimmy Fallon apologized to Michele Bachmann Tuesday after his house band played an offensive song as she walked on stage during an appearance on his show Monday.

Fallon's house band, The Roots, played "Lyin' Ass Bitch" by Fishbone to welcome her to the late night show—a song most people, including Bachmann, didn't notice until Questlove, the band's drummer, hinted at it in a Twitter message.

On Tuesday, Fallon apologized to Bachmann via Twitter.

"I'm honored that @michelebachmann was on our show yesterday and I'm so sorry about the intro mess. I really hope she comes back," Fallon wrote. "Actually it was a fun interview. She helped me with my Minnesota accent. (I still sound Irish)."

But Fallon's apology doesn't appear to be enough for Bachmann, who accused NBC of sexism for not issuing an apology on behalf of the network. She told Fox News in an interview Wednesday whoever in the band chose the song should disciplined or fired and suggested NBC has a double standard in how it treats Republican women.

"This wouldn't be tolerated if it were Michelle Obama, and it shouldn't be tolerated for a conservative woman," Bachmann said, calling the song choice an "outrage."

But she's not the only one complaining. The song choice has come under fire from all sides of the political spectrum. New York Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat, trashed the show for its song choice in a statement to Politico and called on NBC, Fallon and the band to apologize.

"The choice of song to introduce Michele Bachmann on 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' last night was insulting and inappropriate," Lowey told Politico Tuesday. "I do not share Michele Bachmann's politics, but she deserves to be treated with respect. No female politician—and no woman—should be subjected to sexist and offensive innuendo like she was last night."

You can watch the song intro below.

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