Medea Benjamin Holds Congress Members Accountable

FEATURING MEDEA BENJAMIN - At a time when the U.S. Congress’s popularity has tanked, Americans are largely disengaged from their day-to-day civic duties. Stepping into the void are the women of Code Pink who relentlessly show up in the halls of power to question elected officials about their silence on pressing issues such as the Gaza genocide, the recent Israeli bombing of Qatar, and the US bombings of Venezuelan ships. 

Most recently, Code Pink activists showed up at a restaurant in Washington DC to confront President Donald Trump with chants of “Free DC, Free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time.”

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange, and a longtime social justice advocate recognized with numerous peace prizes. A former UN and WHO economist, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her essential work in the global peace movement. She was recently arrested outside the offices of Rep. Darrell Issa for asking him about Israel's bombing of Qatar. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the importance of confronting elected officials.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: So first, let's talk about this arrest that you recently had. You have made it a habit to confront members of Congress with your phone and questions, and videos of them can be seen on Code Pink's social media. But you were arrested after you simply asked Darrell Issa a question about Israel. Tell us, take us through what happened. 

Medea Benjamin: Yes. I was doing what I do every week, which is come into the halls of Congress and try to get some response from members about issues related to what is happening in the world. 

And that was the day after Israel had bombed Qatar. And so, I was asking members of Congress if they would comment on that and if they had a problem with that. And Darrell Issa was walking down the hall, so I asked him if he would say something about it, and he was very nasty and walked right into his office. And then I opened the door and, you know, these are public places, you're allowed to just go in their offices. 

And he got so angry and told his staff to grab my phone and then called the police to have me arrested and couldn't even think of what I was gonna be arrested about, and then ended up saying it was to, that I impeded him walking down the hall.