Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich engaged in a heated exchange on the issue of Gingrich's consulting work for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, with the congresswoman accusing him during Thursday night's presidential debate of using his influence with congressional Republicans to help the companies that were paying him after he left office.
Gingrich denied the accusation, essentially accusing Bachmann of lying. "The easy answer is that is just not true," he replied. "What she just said is factually not true."
"Well, after the debates that we had last week, PolitiFact came out and said that everything I said was true," responded Bachmann.
That statement isn't true. In fact, in its most recent piece on Bachmann -- about her accusation in the last debate that Mitt Romney "put into place socialized medicine" -- PolitiFact rated her claim "Pants on Fire."
"For the record, we did not say that everything Michele Bachmann said at last week's debate was true," PolitiFact quickly tweeted on Thursday.
The Bachmann campaign sent reporters a press release titled "Newt Gingrich's 'Non-Lobbying' Influence Peddling" shortly after she made her remarks, but it notably did not send out anything to back up her PolitiFact statement.