Bachmann Compares Obama To Germanwings Co-Pilot

In a Facebook post that irresponsibly uses a terrible tragedy to further a political opinion, former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann compared President Obama to Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot who allegedly deliberately crashed Flight 9525, killing 149 people and himself. Bachmann's rationale for exploiting this tragedy that has affected the entire globe? Oh, just to try to make a point about her disagreement with the president's potential Iran deal.

There are not enough words to express how distasteful it is attempt to further a political stance and stature by comparing the president (or anyone, for that matter) to someone who allegedly killed more than 100 people and may or may not have had a mental illness. The post was published March 31, the day negotiators were supposed to reach a concrete deal, though the deadline has since been pushed back. Conservatives are against the United States making a deal regarding Iran's nuclear program, as made clear by the open letter penned by 47 Republicans and sent to Iran's supreme leader. In her post, Bachmann wrote:

With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight - a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks. After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?

Comments on the Facebook post were a mix of right and left and included, "Because he is a traitor," "I'm so glad that you're a political has-been, Michele," "Vile and low, even for you, Shell," "Pray we make it to Jan 2017, when we can start undoing the evil," and "Your allusion is so inappropriate and divisive, not to mention disrespectful on so many levels. Shame on you."

Although this particular post seems emphatically worse than other things she's said, Bachmann has made plenty of wild statements about Obama before. Here's a few.

On Swine Flu

In 2009, she suggested that Obama was kind of, maybe to blame for the swine flu epidemic.

I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

On Concentration Camps

Bachmann also basically suggested that the Obama administration might use census data to imprison Americans in concentration camps.

If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.

On Being Anti-American

While calling out Obama in 2008 for his alleged ties to Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bachmann was asked if she thought any of her colleagues in Congress were anti-American. She replied:

I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America. I think people would be -- would love to see an expose like that.

Images: Getty Images (3)