Bachmann Withdraws Swiss Dual Citizenship

In the latest twist in a saga that has only grown stranger by the day, Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite in Congress, now says she is withdrawing her dual citizenship from Switzerland.

"Today I sent a letter to the Swiss Consulate requesting withdrawal of my dual Swiss citizenship, which was conferred upon me by operation of Swiss law when I married my husband in 1978," Bachmann, R-Minn., wrote in a statement Thursday afternoon. "I took this action because I want to make it perfectly clear: I was born in America and I am a proud American citizen."

Bachmann, a former candidate in the Republican primaries for president, stated that she has always been "100 percent committed to our United States Constitution and the United States of America" and noted that as the relative of various military personnel, she is "proud of my allegiance to the greatest nation the world has ever known."

Bachmann had issued a separate statement Wednesday insisting that she had only updated family documents and automatically received dual Swiss citizenship when she married her husband, Marcus, in 1978.

"This is a non-story," she stated Wednesday when she confirmed she was a dual citizen. "Marcus is a dual American and Swiss citizen because he is the son of Swiss immigrants. As a family, we just recently updated our documents."