Rep. Michele Bachmann final speech includes nods to Moses, her staff, her donors and Minnesota

"It's an honor and it's the ride of a lifetime," she said in her final floor speech from the U.S. House as the 113th Congress finishes up its work this week.

By allison.sherry@startribune.com

December 10, 2014 at 6:47PM
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, as she made her final speech from the U.S. House floor on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, as she made her final speech from the U.S. House floor on Tuesday. (Vince Tuss/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

WASHINGTON -- In her final floor speech, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann started talking about a statue on the top of the U.S. Capitol, moved onto Moses and the Ten Commandments, and then capped it with gratitude for her staff, her donors and the guy who literally drives the trains in the basement of the Capitol.

"It's an honor and it's the ride of a lifetime," she said. "I'm so filled with joy and so much happiness and understanding that the privilege that I have is one of being really a link on a chain. It's gone on for hundreds of years and I stand right here on the soil in the square feet that are the freest square feet in the world."

She said the reason why there is government is to secure for everyone "the rights God gave us." She talked about Moses, who the Bible says delivered the Ten Commandments.

"It's an honor. Where else could we find this level of freedom anywhere in the world?" she said, standing alone on the House floor. "This is the room where the laws of our nation's laws are formulated."

Bachmann thanked her donors. She thanked her "prayer warriors" -- people who prayed for her through her political ups and downs -- and she thanked her staff and some Capitol employees, including James, who drives the train between House Office Buildings and the Capitol. She thanked the constituents in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. And she thanked veterans

"It is our job not to think only of ourselves but to think of the generations that are yet to come," she said. "My favorite Americans are people who didn't know they were Americans. They were the Pilgrims."

The 113th Congress is finishing up its work this week. The new 114th Congress is sworn in early January. GOP Rep.-elect Tom Emmer will replace Bachmann, who hasn't said what she is going to do next.

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allison.sherry@startribune.com

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