Republicans Rush To Defend Huma Abedin From Michele Bachmann
After former presidential wannabe Michele Bachmann claimed that Huma Abedin, a top aide within the U.S. government, has ties to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, Republicans all over the country have spoken out condemning Bachmann’s attacks and defending Abedin’s reputation.
Weird, right?
Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (also wife of disgraced pol Anthony Weiner), was singled out in a report that Bachmann, along with four other conservative lawmakers, submitted to five federal agencies warning that the Muslim Brotherhood could be attempting an infiltration of the U.S. government. Senator John McCain was the first Republican to step out in defense of Abedin, calling the report an ” unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman,” on the Senate floor, but he’s far from being the last Righty to condemn Bachmann’s tasteless attack.
House Speaker John Boehner has also rushed to the defense of Abedin, warning lawmakers against making serious reputation-tarnishing allegations without hard evidence to back them up, reports the Huffington Post. “From everything that I do know of [Abedin], she has a sterling character and I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous,” he said. Bachmann’s former campaign chief harshly condemned the former presidential contender in an op-ed contributed to Fox News.
Florida Repub. Marco Rubio also condemned Bachmann’s attacks, albeit in a much more tactful way, telling NPR that, “I can tell you that I don’t share the feelings that are in that letter,” he continued, “And in fact, I’m very very careful and cautious about ever making accusations like that about anyone.”
We’ve even got Republicans taking to Twitter to defend Abedin!
Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse
— Scott P. Brown(@ScottBrownMA) July 18, 2012
For her own part, Bachmann maintains that this is all just a great big misunderstanding and that her letters are being taken out of context. She released a statement Wednesday, saying:
“I encourage everyone, including media outlets, to read them in their entirety,” continuing, “The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical group’s access to top Obama administration officials.”
Whether or not that’s true, who knows. You can let us know what you think in the comments.
Still, it’s always interesting when one party overwhelmingly steps out in defense of someone across the aisle.
