Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin told CNN after she repeatedly interrupted and heckled President Obama during his foreign policy speech Thursday that she doesn’t consider what she did “heckling.”
A partial transcript, via RealClearPolitics:
MADEA BENJAMIN: First I want to take objection with the term “heckler.” Because I actually had an invitation to get in and I felt compelled to speak out. I waited until the end of the speech. I didn’t hear what many of us thought we were going to hear, which significant policies —
CAROL COSTELLO: You clearly interrupted the president, though, that would be heckling.
BENJAMIN: Well, I don’t call it heckling. I call it speaking out because the president is not implementing policies that we need to see changed. I’ve written books on these issues, including one called “Drone Warfare.” I go around talking to people around the country, around the world.
Costello, the anchor, added later in the exchange “A lot said you were hurting your own cause because one, you appeared rude to the president of the United States, and two, you just seemed a little crazy.”
