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Code Pink literally stole the show at John Brennan’s confirmation hearing on Thursday forcing Senator Diane Feinstein to halt the proceedings, clear the chamber and call for their removal.
NBC’s Tom Curry’s tweet says it all:
Code Pink filifluster will delay Senate vote on Brennan nomination
— Tom Curry (@NBC_Tom_Curry) February 7, 2013
Brennan= a national security risk. Stop killing kids with #drones!! #rejectbrennan twitter.com/codepink/statu…
— CODEPINK (@codepink) February 9, 2013
Here’s a transcript courtesy of Democracy Now of Brennan attempting to give his opening statement:
JOHN BRENNAN: And I’m very pleased to be joined today by my wife Kathy and brother Tom.
CODEPINK PROTESTER: Speaking of children, I speak for the mothers who lost children—
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: All right, we will stop again.
CODEPINK PROTESTER: —in your drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia. And who else? Who else? Where else?
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Please remove the—
CODEPINK PROTESTER: The CIA and the Obama administration refuse to even tell Congress. They won’t even tell Congress what countries we are killing children in.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Please—
CODEPINK PROTESTER: Senator Feinstein—
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: If you could please expedite the removal?
CODEPINK PROTESTER: —are your children more important than the children of Pakistan and Yemen? Are they more important? Do your job! World peace depends on it! We’re making more enemies—
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Please proceed, Mr. Brennan. The next time, we’re going to clear the chamber and bring people back in one by one. This witness is entitled to be heard, ladies and gentlemen. So please give him that opportunity.
JOHN BRENNAN: Thank you. A heartfelt thank you also goes to my family in New Jersey, especially my 91-year-old mother Dorothy, my 92-year-old father Owen, who emigrated from Ireland nearly 65 years ago.
JOANNE LINGLE: 178 children killed by drones in Pakistan. And Mr. Brennan, if you don’t know who they are, I have a list. I have a list with all the names and the ages.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: All right, I’m going to—we’re going to halt the hearing. I’m going to ask that the room be cleared and that the CODEPINK associates not be permitted to come back in. Done this five times now, and five times are enough.
Great interview with Medea Benjamin on Democracy Now! Hats off to Code Pink who’s been in the lead exposing our deadly drone program.
Code Pink has long been my favourite activist group and they show yet again why. They were one of the few groups who attacked the bankers and the Obama administration in the early days of 2009. A lot of people on the left didn’t get it. They thought being loyal to Obama was more important. We know how well that passivity ended: the Tea Party.
On drone strikes, as you point out, Code Pink was so early, so far ahead of so many on the left. Many who, again, felt it was necessary to be loyal instead of being true to their principles(or whatever’s left of them anyway).
Now even the mainstream left, best epitomized by the NYT, has woken up to the drones.
Oh, and Medea Benjamin is awesome all-around. I still feel sorry for her for the treatment she received at the Bibi @- Congress spectacle.
I seen the clearing of the chamber wondered what happened…
fienstien is a team player for war machine USA
amman, jordan
two decades ago
while waiting for an entry permit to iraq
there, bubbling over with enthusiasm
guess who
code blue
how cheerful & nice they were too
Thanks for being brave. God bless.
Code Pink is amazingly courageous and principled–I sorely missed them at the Hagel hearing.