DES MOINES, Iowa
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called for the resignation of the Treasury Secretary in the wake of Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the U.S. credit rating.

“President Obama has destroyed the credit rating of the United States,” the Minnesota congresswoman told reporters Friday. “I call on the president to seek the immediate resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”

Bachmann issued her call for Geithner’s resignation in a statement following an appearance at the Spirit Midwest Christian Music Festival. Bachmann has begun a bus tour of Iowa leading up to the Aug. 13 straw poll at Ames, the first major test of campaign organizational strength among the nine current contenders for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Polls show Bachmann leading in Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation caucuses, scheduled for Feb. 6.