Rollins Rips Bachmann for Accusations Against Clinton Aide

Ed Rollins, a top Republican strategist who for a time managed Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, is pulling no punches in his criticism of the Minnesota GOP congresswoman.

He’s taking her to task for accusations Bachmann leveled against Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Bachmann and four House Republican colleagues sent a letter to security agencies last week warning that the Muslim Brotherhood may have infiltrated our government.

The letter said, "Huma Abedin has three family members — her late father, her mother, and her brother — connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations."

Rollins would have none of it.

“I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades,” he wrote on FoxNews.com Wednesday. “There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me.”

But this does. “Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest,” Rollins says.

“Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.”

Abedin was born in the United States and is of Pakistani descent. Both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton have said she is like a daughter to them. Abedin is married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.

Rollins joins Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who criticized Bachmann’s action on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“The Republican Party, which John McCain led as our nominee in 2008, is going to become irrelevant if we become the party of intolerance and hate,” Rollins writes. “I can assure Mrs. Bachmann that Ms. Abedin has been through every top clearance available and would never have been given her position with any questions of her loyalty to this country. As a member of Congress, with a seat on the House Intelligence Committee, Mrs. Bachmann you know better. Shame on you, Michele!”