Above Photo: AP Photo / Evan Vucci
A protester, identified by reporters on scene as Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war group, Code Pink, could be seen drawing the crowd’s attention up in the stands Thursday as Trump gave his speech to the Republican National Convention.
Trump had to veer off-script to address her interruption as the crowd chanted, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
“How great are our police! And how great is Cleveland!” Trump declared.
Watch the interruption:
Reporters on scene captured security escorting Benjamin out of the Quicken Loans Arena:
Here is footage of the anti Trump protester being dragged out of the arena: pic.twitter.com/WLXMFL11ZY
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 22, 2016
.@medeabenjamin of Code Pink being escorted out of #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/Sd46xx18hl — Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 22, 2016
CLEVELAND ― A demonstrator brought GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention speech to a brief halt Thursday night, as police attempted to remove her from Quicken Loans Arena.
She was quickly identified as Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, a women-led peace organization. Benjamin wore a banner that read, “Build Bridges, Not Walls,” and said she was there to stand up to Trump’s hateful and divisive rhetoric.
“Scapegoating immigrants and refugees ― some of the most marginalized and powerless members of our society ― for the problems we face as a nation is deeply racist,” Benjamin said in a press release. “I rose to disrupt Trump’s ‘victory speech’ tonight to make sure that no one, whether in the arena or watching in their living room, could overlook the horrifying racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny that is at the root of Donald Trump’s ideology. We want to build bridges not walls, and we want peace and love, not hate and war.”
Benjamin is a prolific protester. She’s heckled President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In 2004, she managed to disrupt both the Republican and Democratic national conventions to protest the war in Iraq.
Despite her track record, Benjamin seems to continue to make it past security.
I just disrupted #Trump to say BUILD BRIDGES NOT WALLS!! https://t.co/OX5U5iqacy pic.twitter.com/1jQwGyw9iD
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) July 22, 2016
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.