Bachmann says Obama tolerates radical Islamists

In one of her first speeches since dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Rep. Michele Bachmann on Thursday ripped President Obama’s foreign policy agenda, saying the White House has fostered the spread of radical pro-Islamists and offended key ally Israel.

The Minnesota Republican, while speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, said Mr. Obama’s foreign policy successes, such as killing of Osama bin Laden,  were “tactically successes that don’t begin to compare with the mess that Barack Obama has made in the Middle East and the strategic foreign policy blunders he’s committed.”

Mr. Bachmann said Mr. Obama’s decision to invite Muslim Brotherhood representatives to a speech he gave in Egypt early in his presidency in 2009 set a dangerous tone that his administration tolerates anti-American Islamic extremists. She said the “absolutely shocking move” was was a foolish snub to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — ousted last year during the Arab Spring movement — who was at odds with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader has called for the killing of United States troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “It’s unthinkable that the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader is now acting today as a mediator between the United State and our enemy the Taliban in Afghanistan.”

Mrs. Bachmann said the president’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood and his failure to stand by Mr. Murbarak helped fuel the 2011 revolution in Egypt that “led to a regime that was based on Sharia law,” referring to an Islamic moral code. She said Egypt’s new government has led to the persecution of non-Muslims in the country and caused more than 100,000 Christians to flee the country.

She also blamed Mr. Obama for political instability in Tunisia and for failing to back a pro-democracy movement in Iran.

“Since Obama’s election, Israel rarely has enjoyed President Obama’s support,”  she said. “In Israel’s hour of dire need, the United States must stand with Israel.”

Mrs. Bachman added that before the Obama presidency, “no one had ever heard a United States president say to the world that we are anything other than an exceptional nation. We are.”

“And before President Obama was elected no president had ever gone around apologizing to the world,” she said.