Bachmann's claims worry staff

By: Molly Ball
Politico.com
September 16, 2011 01:06 PM EDT

Amid a hard fade in the polls and a struggle to remain in the 2012 spotlight, Michele Bachmann suddenly finds herself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons — namely, her troubling habit of making misstatements and demonstrably false claims.

It’s a problem, former top staffers for the Minnesota congresswoman told POLITICO, that’s plagued her since she first arrived in Congress in 2007.

Three former senior aides to Bachmann painted a picture of a shoot-from-the-lip member who cavalierly makes assertions without knowing the facts — and would occasionally make them up to suit her needs.

The issue was serious enough, according to the accounts of two former staffers in Bachmann’s House office, that when new senior aides arrived to work for her, they were warned: Fact-check everything she says.

“She says stuff without thinking there’s going to be any repercussions,” one aide said. “I think she can get away with that in Congress. I don’t think that you can as president.”

(More here.)