Bachmann Hints at Path to Nomination

Gesturing to the Tea Party movement, presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann says she has "no doubt" she can win over voters in New Hampshire and South Carolina, not just in the state of Iowa where she was born.

"The Tea Party took over the Republican Party apparatus in New Hampshire and in South Carolina, so it's really a new wave," the Minnesotan congresswoman told Bret Baier during an impromptu appearance on Special Report's online show.

Bachmann, who announced on Monday during the New Hampshire debate that she had filed her papers to run for president, said she already has people "on the ground" in New Hampshire and South Carolina: "We are organizing in those states."

Some political analysts have questioned Bachmann's ability appeal to voters beyond the Tea Party movement she has helped create; the congresswoman, however, is making the case that the Tea Party is a larger movement than outsiders believe.

"People mistakenly think the Tea Party is the right wing fringe of the Republican Party; that's what a lot of people don't realize -- it isn't," she said. "It's disaffected Democrats, Libertarians, people who have never been political before...in addition to Republicans and the right part of the Republican Party."

"Now everyone doesn't agree in the Tea Party," said Bachmann. But, she added, "I would say they agree on maybe 70 percent of the issues, primarily economic. There is a total agreement that what Washington is doing isn't working for them and they want politicians to listen and they still don't feel like politicians are listening."

After Bachmann left the Special Report set, panelist Mara Liasson remarked, "What [Bachmann] said is going to be tested -- if the Tea Party truly has become the infrastructure, the grassroots infrastructure of these state parties, then I think she has a path."

The congresswoman was in the Fox News DC bureau to make a television appearance on "Hannity," where she made some pointed critiques of President Obama, especially on the issue of the economy.

"We're not hearing from the president that he even begins to understand this horrific situation that a lot of Americans are in," Bachmann said. "It's very shocking, Sean, the lack of empathy that this president has. I talk to people, I care about people. I'm in my district. I've gone into restaurants for instance where restaurant owners are cutting back their number of employees because they know Obamacare is about to come into place and they had 60 employees, but they're firing 10, so they come under fifty employees because they don't want to come under Obamacare. The president has no understanding of what's happening in real people's lives."