On the morning before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she was counting on a “miracle”
to resurrect her faltering campaign. On the morning after, she acknowledged that it was beyond saving.
Mrs. Bachmann said Wednesday morning that she would not continue her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to stand aside,” Mrs. Bachmann said at a news conference in West Des Moines.
In her comments, she continued her criticism of President Obama and his policies, particularly his health care program and the Dodd-Frank bill that provided more oversight of the financial industry.
“I will continue to fight to defeat the president’s agenda of socialism,” she said. She made no endorsement of another candidate.
Of the six candidates who seriously competed in the Iowa caucus, Mrs. Bachmann came in last, winning only 5 percent of the vote. She had signaled that she would stay in the race during a speech to supporters on Tuesday night saying, “There are many more chapters to be written on our path to the nomination.”
That path, Mrs. Bachmann said, was through South Carolina, where she planned to go directly after the Iowa caucuses in the hopes that her message of social conservatism and Tea Party-infused populism would resonate. But before her news conference, The Associated Press reported that she was canceling the trip, citing her campaign manager, Keith Nahigian.
The rise and fall of Mrs. Bachmann’s campaign foretold similar narratives for the other Republicans who sought to run as alternatives to Mitt Romney. Her passion and forceful debate performances helped her win the Iowa straw poll in late summer, only to have it foreshadowed by Gov. Rick Perry’s entry into the race. (Mr. Perry’s own campaign later faltered: He also canceled plans to head straight to South Carolina, announcing Tuesday night that he would return to Texas to reassess his campaign after a fifth-place finish in Iowa.)
This article, “Bachmann Says She Will Not Continue in the Race,” originally appeared in The New York Times.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy