Congresswoman Michele Bachmann took to YouTube this morning to announce that she will not be seeking a 5th term as representative from Minnesota’s 6th district. Her decision comes as a bit of a surprise to politicos and pundits as the congresswoman recently rewon her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by a narrow margin over Democratic businessman Jim Graves. Washington D.C., a notorious hotbed for scandal and scrutiny, is teeming with the idea that Representative Bachmann is retiring due to allegations of misappropriating funds from her 2012 presidential campaign.
The YouTube video Representative Bachmann used as a forum to announce that she wouldn’t seek reelection was an interesting play as it toed the delicate line between holding others accountable and a raving tirade.
The video starts out sentimental enough, elevator music ringing in the background, with the congresswoman expressing how her decision “was not in any way influenced by any concerns about [her] being elected to congress” and similarly not in “any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of her former presidential campaign or former presidential staff.”
The inquiry in question has to do with allegations that the representative’s “campaign improperly used leadership PAC funds to pay presidential campaign staff — including national political director Guy Short — and concealed payments to state Sen. Kent Sorenson,” according to the Washington Post.
The video starts to go way of ranting and raving at around the 3:30 mark, which would have been a perfectly acceptable place to end the announcement but rather than that, the Rep. Bachmann decides to relay her unwavering Tea Party Republican values while slamming the Obama administration for the remaining 5 minutes about hot button topics burning the media airwaves such as Benghazi, the IRS probing scandal, and the Department of Justice’s seizure of AP phone records.
It just seems like the congresswoman was looking for an non-commercial interrupted conclave to air her dirty laundry out to dry when she could have easily bowed out with dignity and respect.
Check out Michele Bachmann’s YouTube video announcing she won’t seek reelection:
