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The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog

Bachmann: Tea Partiers Yesterday Numbered “20,000 Minimum”

Michele Bachmann’s tea party yesterday may have left her with an inflated sense of her influence and popularity — at least, judging by the fact that she put the number of tea partiers who showed up yesterday to five times the estimate in some news accounts.

Bachmann went on the Mark Levin show last night and claimed that the total number of attendees was “20,000 minimum.”

“This was word of mouth, this was word of mouth, Mark,” she said excitedly. “And it was minimum 20,000. minimum.”

You can listen to audio here.

That, incidentally, is the number that has been decided on by right-wing media. Earlier in the show, Levin cited that figure without sourcing it. Sean Hannity did the same thing last night. And now Bachmann herself.

The source for this figure is unknown. MSNBC cited Capitol Police yesterday afternoon putting the number at 3,000-3,5000. Later MSNBC revised it up to 4,000, also citing police sources. Politico estimated 10,000, based on unclear sourcing.

One other interesting tidbit from the interview: Bachmann said yesterday’s tea party is the sole reason House Dem leaders are now worried they might not have the votes to pass health care reform.

“The only reason why they wouldn’t think they have the votes is because of you and all the people that came out today,” Bachmann reasoned.

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Posted by Greg Sargent | 11/06/2009, 11:50 AM EST | Categories: House Dems, House Republicans, health care

49 Responses

  1. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am

    Here’s something from Cantor following the “press conference” without questions from the press. At least Andrea Mitchell asks him about those delightful signs. There’s more in this post about inflating the numbers as well.

    “(S)hortly after addressing the crowd, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) actually blamed Democrats for the hateful images on display. In an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Cantor suggested that the signs were the mere result of “frustration” over the democratically elected majority’s “extreme policies.” Mitchell pushed him to say whether he’s “comfortable with those attacks against the President of the United States,” but Cantor quickly changed the subject:

    CANTOR: Listen, I don’t think we should engage in personal attacks. But I think, and what I take the message from the gathering of tens of thousands of people on the steps of the Capitol today, and the elections on Tuesday, is the fact that, you know what, we need some balance here in Washington.”

    http://crooksandliars.com/

  2. amk | November 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Greg, can we drop this bat shite crazy woman from the coverage ? Yesterday’s events must have shown what this woman is worth.

  3. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Ignore the Congressional Trolls.

  4. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    It’s my understanding that the areas of discussion and some vote cajoling on the House bill primarily have to do with both Abortion and Immigration language, not Bachman’s “spontaneous” House Call.

    “In the meantime, Hoyer acknowledged that leadership is still addressing concerns from some Democrats that the health reform bill doesn’t do enough to deny federal funding for abortion services or health care for undocumented immigrants. As it stands, the bill doesn’t provide either, but small coalitions of Dems are still pushing to change the final language on those points. “Obviously those are issues of great concern,” Hoyer said. “We are working on those issues now.”

    Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/hoyer-house-stays-until-h_n_348398.html&cp

  5. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    Here comes the next wave of paranoid delusion from the really extreme right. And here’s the truth to combat it.

    “Well, if you were wondering what paranoiac smear artist would be the first to step out and attempt to name President Barack Obama as the man who guided Nidal Malik Hasan to his murderous rampage at Fort Hood yesterday, the answer — naturally! — is Jerome Corsi. Corsi has a long history of lunatic, fact-averse ravings and he fails to disappoint on that regard on the pages of World Net Daily, today, in a piece entitled “Shooter advised Obama transition.” Except, of course, he didn’t do any such thing.”

    Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/iwndis-jerome-corsi-claim_n_348461.html&cp

  6. amk | November 6th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    BarbinMD @ dkos citing a WaPo piece (dana milibank of all people)

    “By the time it was over, medics had administered government-run health care to at least five people
    in the crowd who were stricken as they denounced government-run health care. But Bachmann overlooked this irony as she said farewell to her recruits”

    And then barb’s barb

    “And then the crowd shuffled back to the socialist Metro to go home …”

  7. Liam | November 6th, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    Let me see if I have this straight:

    We are trying to pass legislation to end the practice of patients being denied treatment. Am I correct so far?

    The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman has a right to obtain a medical procedure, known as an abortion, particularly, if the health or life of the pregnant women, is at risk. Am I correct so far?

    But, we are proposing to pass a reform bill that would deny coverage for a women to get the medical procedure that would save her life, and which the Supreme said she has a constitutional right to obtain.

    Do I have that right?

  8. ChuckinDenton | November 6th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    amk-

    Thanks for that.

  9. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    David A. Harris, President of the National Jewish Democratic Council:

    “Today’s G.O.P. “Tea Party” on Capitol Hill opposing health insurance reform invoked disgusting Holocaust imagery and outright anti-Semitism. Top Republican Party leaders including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN) stood before a crowd that included a banner protesting health care reform and displaying corpses from the Holocaust. Yet another sign charged that “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds” [sic]. Such vile invocations of Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric have been condemned in recent weeks by rabbinic movements, The Interfaith Alliance, and The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.”

  10. sbj | November 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    “Do I have that right?”

    No.

  11. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Liam

    They’re trying to make sure they are in compliance with the Hyde Ammendment which bans Federal funding of Abortions. They’re also debating whether or not to allow Illegal Immigrants to purchase insurance from the PO or not.

  12. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    Thanks for that Ethan, I was so disgusted yesterday.

  13. mike from Arlington | November 6th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Yeah, I heard her on Levin’s show last night and mentioned it…I think maybe here. Can’t remember.

    I don’t know who’s more insane, Levin or her. That guy has had quadruple by-pass surgery I think. If he doesn’t calm down, he’s gonna have a heart attack. He’s constantly yelling at some imaginary figure he’s made up in his mind. His entire broadcast is some crazy conspiracy theory about some diabolical liberal plan to control everyone. I’d argue him and a few others are behind the paranoia you hear every day.

  14. amk | November 6th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Chuck – No problem. The hypocrisy of the teabaggers should be exposed more and often. Wish Greg did that more often than perpetuating the repug (and the media) lies about their numbers. He is getting distracted by the typical repugs’ trolling tactic of claiming outrageous lies as truths and then seeing the lefty blogs go bananas over it. Their lying about the attendance doesn’t matter a whit. But exposing their hypocrisy will win over the indies and the moderates.

  15. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    No prob Imsinca, I had relatives gassed in the war. I think maybe at Dachau. Those could be my ancestors. Horrific.

  16. Liam | November 6th, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Since an Abortion is a legal medical procedure, how can it be singled out, as something that will not be covered? What if a poor woman’s life is at risk, and we refuse to cover the legal procedure that would save her life.

    Sounds very much like a “Death Panel” decision to me.

    O the irony of it all!

  17. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

    More filth:

    Spencer Ackerman highlights a bogus report on WND — also the publisher of Muslim Mafia — which runs under the (false) headline: “Shooter advised Obama transition.”

    http://washingtonindependent.com/66931/birther-site-is-already-lying-about-ft-hood-shooter-and-obama

    Not sure what to say at this point. This is not America. Certainly not the United States of America.

  18. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    This regarding another Female star of the Republican Party.

    “(CNN) – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is set to deliver remarks at a Wisconsin Right to Life event Friday evening, one of the few speeches the former Republican presidential nominee will have given since she resigned the governorship last summer.

    But Palin appears to be doing her best to keep a low profile on this trip: no press will be allowed into the Milwaukee auditorium where she will speak and those who have paid the $30 admittance fee are unable to carry in cell phones, cameras, laptops, or recording devices of any kind.

    Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate told the Wisconsin Radio Network he finds all these restrictions “bizarre.”

    “You know, for someone who claims to be a rogue and isn’t afraid of what other people think it really is sort of hypocritical to not let the media, the press cover your event.”

  19. Liam | November 6th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    My Question Of The Day:

    Why Do All Those Teabaggers, who hold up signs about not allowing: “Death Panels to kill Grannies” not care if those death panels kill Granddads?

  20. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    The article was written by Swift-boater Jerome Corsi and it is wildly false. WE MUST GET OUT AHEAD OF THIS STORY BECAUSE IT WILL BE BIG NEWS ON FAUX PROPAGANDA:

    Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday’s massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama’s transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

    The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University published a document May 19, entitled “Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009,” in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

    We MUST get out ahead of this one.

    Go to this link and read the whole article.

    Then spread the link around. We gotta kill this outright salacious piece of sh*t conspiracy theory.

    We HAVE to push back on this stuff ASAP, but the key is NOT to be deflected from pushing for HCR reform this weekend. Let’s roll.

  21. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    oops, here’s the link again:

    http://washingtonindependent.com/66931/birther-site-is-already-lying-about-ft-hood-shooter-and-obama

  22. amk | November 6th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    lmsinca – and yet palinite wingnuts whine about gobinmint taking control of their lives. Stoopid morans.

  23. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    TPM also debunks the WND insane asylum:

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/conservatives_say_nidal_malik_hasan_is_muslim_brot.php

  24. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    Let’s KILL THIS INSANE MEME, then get back to HCR asap.

  25. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    “Do I have that right?Do I have that right?Do I have that right?”

    Yes.

  26. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    My keyboard has had a complete psychotic break with reality.

    I guess I”m going to have to get another one.

  27. BBQ | November 6th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    Only 20,000? Why is she low balling it like that? I definately counted about 80,000 billion people on my conservative decoder ring.

  28. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    omfg:

    More ominously, a man standing just beyond the TV cameras apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after event began. Medical personnel from the Capitol physician’s office — an entity that could, quite accurately, be labeled government-run health care — rushed over, attaching electrodes to his chest and giving him oxygen and an IV drip.

    This turned into an unwanted visual for the speakers, as a D.C. ambulance and firetruck, lights flashing, pulled in just behind the lawmakers. A path was made through the media section, and the patient, attended to by about 10 government medical personnel, was being wheeled away on a stretcher just as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) stepped to the microphone. “Join us in defeating Pelosi care!” he exhorted. A few members stole a glance at the stretcher.

    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/06/rally-heart-attack/

    God save us from the former Republican Party’s fringe remnants.

  29. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    Oh no, not again, I just posted and my comment disappeared.

  30. lmsinca | November 6th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    Greg

    I’m outta here for awhile, lost two comments.

  31. Baby Hugo | November 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Is that vote even going to happen tomorrow? Was that sneak attack AARP/AMA endorsement not enough to get the job done? I am beginning to think this government takeover of healthcare isn unpopular, no matter what straight-shooting, middle-of-the-roaders like MSNBC, the Plum Line, and Daily Kos say.

  32. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 01:00 pm

    “I am beginning to think this government takeover of healthcare isn unpopular, no matter what straight-shooting, middle-of-the-roaders like MSNBC, the Plum Line, and Daily Kos say.”

    Hugely unpopular unless you know how to read polls.

  33. amk | November 6th, 2009 at 01:02 pm

    lmsinca – wish comments from stoopid trolls like bh suffered the same fate.

  34. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 01:02 pm

    sneak attack of AMA and AARP.

    roflmao – I love how a presidential public announcement is sneaky.

  35. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 01:04 pm

    Imsinca – don’t go. I’m not having trouble – maybe it will stop for you.

  36. Gasman | November 6th, 2009 at 01:17 pm

    This just in: FauxNews has revised their attendance figures at yesterday’s teabagger MENSA-fest. With the help of Glenn Beck’s “body counting” from the “University of I Don’t Know” and Michelle Malkin’s keen mind, they have revised their figures to 9 million teabaggers! In all probability, the count will go even higher! 



    It is rumored that the Metro system melted due to the increased ridership. L’Enfant Station was literally reduced to liquid! The sheer weight from the mass of teabagger humanity cracked the pavement on Pennsylvania Avenue and made the Mall sink by 3 inches! There were so many buses required to move the teabaggers that the entire East Coast is still without diesel fuel! Take that those who mock the might of the teabaggers!



    FauxNews is now confirming that the crowd spilled over into Alexandria, VA, well past the National Cemetary. Some reports are suggesting that the crowd extended as far north as the Maryland state line! There’s no way this could be a measly 9 million! It must be at least 20 or 25 million! It might even be 30 million! Who knows? It could even be 50 MILLION TEABAGGERS WITH MORE ON THE WAY!

    

Wake up America! Can’t you feel the tide of teabagging pride sweeping the nation? Look around. Most of your neighbors are probably still in D.C.!

    

(Cue band and singer to start “God Bless America.”)

  37. kevo | November 6th, 2009 at 01:19 pm

    Why is Michelle Bachmann being asked back time and again by the media?

    Just by witnessing her for a couple minutes, and listening to her chosen rhetoric it becomes plain to see the canyons in her mind run deep! She is an embarrassment as an elected official. She proports non-sense that is sensational in nature. And, she is not providing positive contributions to our governance – something for which she was supposedly elected to do!

    This new-found fetish of our newscoverage to project the grotesque, the absurd, and the idiotic is really bringing me down!-Kevo

  38. Benton | November 6th, 2009 at 01:19 pm

    Hey, every day’s a sunny day filled with lollipops and rainbows when you’re BAT-SHIIT INSANE.

    Gauno-Brain Bachmann: MN’s utter humiliation and eternal cross to bear. The original “Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes” (my apologies to the sublime Dr. Winston O’Boogie).

    Guano-Brian’s next teabagger rally should feature her campaign song: Napoleon XIV’s “They Coming to Take me Awa — Ha Ha!,” seen/heard here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4

  39. roxsteady | November 6th, 2009 at 01:22 pm

    What will this lunatic say when the bill does pass? She’s really a dangerous and ignorant woman and I hope that Taryn Clark crushes this loon in 2010. This was the second teabagger smackdown in the same week. First, the NY 23 election on Tuesday and then yesterday’s disaster made worse by the offensive signs and GOP “leaders in attendence. If you want real perspective on the crowd size check out the story with a rather illuminating photo. It’s really pathetic!
    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/05/liddy-rally-crowd/

  40. mike from Arlington | November 6th, 2009 at 01:25 pm

    Gasman’s account of yesterdays events sounds about accurate.

  41. Liam | November 6th, 2009 at 01:38 pm

    Too much hatred on all sides.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting

    ” 4 mins ago

    KILLEEN, Texas – An apartment complex manager says the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas recently had a religious bumper sticker torn off his car.

    The manager, John Thompson, says a fellow soldier allegedly keyed Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s car and ripped up the bumper sticker. Thompson says the soldier had been to Iraq and was upset to learn Hasan was Muslim.

    Thompson, who manages the Killeen, Texas complex where Hasan lives, says the bumper sticker read: “Allah is Love.” In Arabic, Allah means God.

    A report filed on Aug. 16 with Killeen police says Hasan’s car had been scratched causing $1,000 worth of damage. The report says an Army employee had been arrested. It didn’t provide more details about what happened.”

  42. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 01:43 pm

    Sounds disturbingly like Columbine.

  43. Gasman | November 6th, 2009 at 01:51 pm

    I thought that I was being sarcastic in my post above, but according to roxsteady’s Think Progress link above, G. Gordon Liddy (insert joke HERE) is claiming that yesterday’s teabagger MENSA-fest crowd was at least one million strong.

    How the hell does 4,000 people, a small crowd at a minor league ball game, become 1 million? The photo CLEARLY is only a few thousand at most. I’ve been on the Mall for an event that was said (probably accurately) to have had a million people. It was solid humanity from the Capitol all the way to the Washington Monument.

    The area in the photo from yesterday could easily be contained within a single football field, Does this seem anything like Woodstock aerial photos? Hell no, and that event had at most 500,000 people, maybe less.

    If these teabagger morons can’t speak without constantly making sh*t up, they will never resonate beyond the sheeple flock.

    They are not even remotely credible.

  44. Tena | November 6th, 2009 at 01:51 pm

    “Progress link above, G. Gordon Liddy (insert joke HERE) is claiming that yesterday’s teabagger MENSA-fest crowd was at least one million strong.

    How the hell does 4,000 people, a small crowd at a minor league ball game, become 1 million? ”

    Dude – it’s G. Gordon Liddy. Anyone who believes anything he says is nuts to begin with.

  45. KM | November 6th, 2009 at 02:05 pm

    I just lost my posted comment. This site stinks. Where is the manager for it. Uuuummmmm – My time wasted.

  46. Ethan | November 6th, 2009 at 02:49 pm

    “This site stinks”

    For sh*t spewers like yourself, yup yup you betcha.

    Eat it and beat it freak loser scumbag.

  47. Baby Hugo | November 6th, 2009 at 03:58 pm

    And the leftwing mythologizing of Major Hasan has begun. Pretty soon fuckers like Liam will pushing to name a holiday after him.

  48. News Reference | November 6th, 2009 at 09:56 pm

    For the record, Obama called the Ft. Hood shoots: “A horrific outburst of violence.”

    That right wing trolls are lying about that is despicable.

  49. News Reference | November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    Right wingers can’t count.

    How old is the planet?

    Scientific evidence indicates the planet is around 4.5 BILLION years old.

    The core of the right wing fanatically believe the planet is only around 6,000 years old.

    When violent right wing extremists like Republican Michelle Bachmann and the militants she’s inciting inflate their numbers only part of that is because they are fraudulent con artists, the rest of it is because the suckers amongst them can’t count.

    But while right wing suckers (the followers) can’t count, right wing leaders are pulling a con, a fraud, by inflating their numbers.

    It’s Republican Math: The Error Always Falls in Their Favor. (And there are ALWAYS errors when the Republicans are counting.)

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