MINNEAPOLIS— Congresswoman Michele Bachman (R-Minn.) has again used God to explain a destructive natural disaster, this time claiming that God deserves credit for the earthquake that ravaged western Pakistan on Tuesday.
As the death toll from the quake climbed above 300 on Wednesday, Rep. Bachmann devoted a portion of a Tea Party fundraiser in Minneapolis to explain how she believes God the Almighty used the devastation to intervene in Pakistan’s domestic affairs.
“I think, when you look at everything that’s going on over there, you have to give God credit for the earthquake. Something had to shake up these people, this region, and it was an act of God. Not global warming, or some unexplained natural event, but God,” claimed Bachmann to a crowd of 1,500 Tea Party supporters.
“You know, the president isn’t fixing the situation over there. Neither are the Pakistanian [sic] people. This was a message from God saying, ‘I have my own way of handling things,’” Bachmann added.
The magnitude 7.7 earthquake was felt across the country, even causing a small island to rise from the Arabian Sea. It is Pakistan’s deadliest earthquake since 2006, when an earthquake in the northwest mountains killed more that 70,000 people.
Rep. Bachmann made the comments in response to an audience member’s question about President Obama’s foreign policy, of which Bachmann has been a vocal critic.
During her 2011 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Bachmann said that Hurricane Irene and a small East Coast earthquake were God’s way of urging the U.S. government to cut spending.
Her campaign staff soon tried to pass those comments off as a joke, but this time Bachmann has yet to back down from her comments, and her congressional staffers seem unwilling to defend her.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, is in New York City this week to meet with Indian officials at the United Nations. Sharif told reporters that the “religious fanaticism of one goat-eyed politician” is not enough to discourage the people of Pakistan, and called on Bachmann to visit Pakistan to witness the devastation.
“This woman is the real natural disaster,” Sharif declared. “She puts more American lives in danger than any earthquake could ever hope to.”
