WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann doubled down on Sunday on her criticism of Occupy Wall Street, saying the movement is far less likely to gain traction with the American people than the Tea Party.
"The strength is not with Occupy Wall Street," she said on CNN's "State of the Union." "If you go to the essence of what Occupy Wall Street stands for, it's having other people pay for their stuff."
Bachmann (R-Minn.) has repeatedly criticized the "Occupy" movement, in which protesters are asking for less money in politics and policies that benefit the "99 percent," or those in the middle and on the lower end of the economic spectrum.
OWS protesters interrupted a Bachmann event in South Carolina in November, saying she "promote[s] discrimination" and is not helping the American people.
Bachmann later criticized those protesters as "ignorant and disrespectful."
She said the Tea Party, a constituency she is courting in her attempt to win the Republican presidential nomination, is still going strong.
"That's why you'll see a very strong turn-out in the elections, because people are turning against Barack Obama and his failed policies," she said.