Anderson Cooper Reprimands Michele Bachmann For 'Flunking' American History (VIDEO)

Anderson Cooper gave Michele Bachmann an F in American history on his Monday show, dressing the Republican congresswoman down for several false statements she made about the history of discrimination and slavery in the United States.

Cooper called Bachmann's comments, which she made at a Tea Party event in Iowa, "startling." He played a video of Bachmann talking about people arriving to America throughout history, saying, "it didn't matter the color of their skin...their language...their economic status...once you got here, we were all the same."

"As good as that sounds, that's simply not true," Cooper said. "Irish immigrants didn't feel the same walking past storefronts with signs reading 'No Irish need apply.' Japanese Americans didn't feel the same when they were placed in internment camps during World War II. And, of course, enslaved Africans certainly didn't feel the same when they were brought here against their will."

He then played another clip of Bachmann saying that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."

Again Cooper rightly said, she was wrong, pointing out that many of the founders, including Jefferson and Washington, owned slaves, and that protection of slavery was written into the Constitution via the three-fifths clause.

Cooper said he was focusing on Bachmann's comments because "we believe facts matter, particularly where our history is concerned." He said Bachmann had not responded to requests for an interview or a statement.

WATCH

It's not the first time Cooper has reprimanded Bachmann for saying untrue things: in November, he busted the myth about the cost of President Obama's trip to Asia that she was largely responsible for pushing.

Comments

[proudloudlib]

01:07 PM on 02/14/2011

If she keeps this up, I'm going to need evidence that she is a real person, and not some made-up character in a giant literary farce. Surely no one is that stewpid.

[thirdcloud]

02:12 PM on 02/03/2011

It just goes to show you the arrogance of ignorance. Tea anyone?

[geo999]

12:45 PM on 01/30/2011

Anderson Cooper is emblematic of many of today's commentators.
Good hair, solemn tone, and without a clue.

He has obviously never studied the history or the underlying documents that preceded the writing of The Constitution. And he plays to an audience that likewise has no interest in doing so.

[rodcook1010]

12:19 PM on 03/18/2011

Whatever your issue is with Anderson Cooper or his audience, what does your comment have to do with that half-wit in Minnesota. Do you not see the idiocy in this woman? What about the audience she plays to? Have I identified one of them?

[Allan888]

09:28 AM on 01/30/2011

I think she thinks everyone that came before us is our fore fathers/founding fathers. I am so glad she is congresswoman and not a history teacher. Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann need to put on their man pants and read a book.

[Loki D Wolf]

07:39 PM on 01/28/2011

Seriously - forget the politics of right and left - WTF is wrong with this woman?!

[bweve05]

02:56 PM on 01/28/2011

She must have gotten her facts from the tennessee tea party. They want to rewrite this exact histoy in textbooks. http://www.wral.com/golo/blogpost/8973635/

[Shifu]

08:11 AM on 01/28/2011

This woman is an embarrassment to Minnesota. Will some one from that state tell us how she keeps getting elected.

[Luke McIntosh]

05:30 AM on 01/28/2011

AC is the man!

[lw1]

12:41 AM on 01/28/2011

All sensible women everywhere should band together and let michele know she is an embarrassment.

[decrepittex]

10:34 PM on 01/27/2011

FACTS!! Teabaggers aren't interested in stinking facts. Hasn't Cooper heard of "Republican history"? Where has he been while Bush, Cheney, Rudy, Bachmann, Sarah, Newt and others have revised history?

[Ronald B. Robinson]

10:02 PM on 01/29/2011

Great points! F & F

[MmeFlutterbye]

08:46 PM on 01/27/2011

"Anderson Cooper gave Michele Bachmann an F in American history"

It would have been a week (at least) of after-school detention if my eighth grade had come up with Bachmann's declaration after I taught them six months of unrevised American history.

[mistahshow]

04:30 PM on 01/27/2011

Common AC, would you respond when you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and and there will be someone there to call you on the facts?

[TedEjr]

03:50 PM on 01/27/2011

From the article---He said Bachmann had not responded to requests for an interview or a statement.(End)

I hope you are not holding your breath, Anderson.

Thank you, Michelle, for proving me to be spot on. I say over and over, the best thing we can do is to give these people a microphone. And then let them speak. And speak, and. speak. In short order, their inanity will become evident.

Keep on talking Michelle. Let the public know how totally inane you are. Don't be afraid to follow in the footsteps of Angle. And O'Donnell.

[MmeFlutterbye]

08:53 PM on 01/27/2011

Another Fox News viewer, I presume.

[TedEjr]

09:24 PM on 01/27/2011

If that presumption was in reference to me, you have totally misread my post. Or you don't know the definition of inane. Or both.

[MmeFlutterbye]

10:07 PM on 01/27/2011

My bad! I was replying to a different comment/. Full apologies. I have a pretty sound vocabulary.

[Chelley Emmons]

05:39 AM on 01/28/2011

The sad thing is, it's already said. You cannot take words back, and people like Bachmann rarely attempt it anyway. So it's out there, and so is SP's WTF interview, and regardless of accuracy, people have already watched and thought "yep, I can identify with her, makes sense to me"....so there will be no questioning on their part if what Bachmann and Palin said was accurate, because it resonates with them. That's the disservice.

[MiddleMolly]

08:51 AM on 01/28/2011

Excellent point: The "resonates with them" which explains why so many middle and working class Americans continue to vote against their own best interests.

[Ronald B. Robinson]

10:06 PM on 01/29/2011

Great point Chelley. And THAT's the point why the media is complicit in spreading their virus, because rare is it that someone jams these people. Then Wolf Blitzer and CNN turn around and gives the Republican Party TWO responses to SOTU. Shame!. F & F.

[vpersuader2011]

03:15 PM on 01/27/2011

Michelle Bachman - where is your High School Diploma? What was your American History Grade?How did you become an attorney? The American People want to know - ooops, the whole world wants to know.

[MmeFlutterbye]

08:54 PM on 01/27/2011

I'd like to see Sarah Palin's sorry college transcripts, too.

[decrepittex]

10:41 PM on 01/27/2011

Not all American people want to know. About 40% believe every word she said, and most of them couldn't find Oklahoma on a map if the name wasn't printed on the picture.

[MiMiThePokerDiva]

02:32 PM on 01/27/2011

What planet is this woman from?! A matter a fact what history do they teach in the Minn. schools?! Where did she go to school?! Who was her teacher?! The educational system has failed her and her classmates if she speaks this mumble jumble account of history.

OR maybe she just zoned out in history/civil service class!

[EndTheEcho]

12:37 AM on 01/28/2011

Hey, my Minnesota teachers were just fine. Just because she is nutty, and wants to twist history to fit her world view, doesn't mean our history teachers are incompetent.