Medea Benjamin apologized for interrupting Cruz, when he had not interrupted her, correct?
I haven't read where Medea Benjamin agreed that Iran sponsored terror. Can you point me to where that was said?
You’re correct, I misread the beginning of the second line below.
He did shut her up, and left her with no response.
Here’s a more accurate description of the conversation.
“Those billions of dollars will be used to fund jihadis that will murder Americans, that will murder Israelis, that will murder Europeans. Does that make any sense?” Cruz asked.
“No, that doesn’t make any sense,” Benjamin responded, insisting that only the nuclear agreement reached between world powers will stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
“What you have been pushing for is going to lead us to war,” she said. “Diplomacy, just like we saw the flag up in the Cuban embassy, that’s diplomacy at work.”
As Cruz attempted to rebut Benjamin’s points, she tried to interrupt and shout over him.
“Ma’am I did not interrupt you, so I would ask you to show me the same courtesy,” Cruz said, eliciting an apology from Benjamin.
“You did not respond to the irrefutable point that this deal with send over $100 billions dollars to Iran and those billions of dollars will be used to murder Americans by jihadists,” Cruz explained.
“I recognize that the folks in CODEPINK like to hold up signs saying, ‘Peace with Iran.’ You know who doesn’t reciprocate those views? Iran,” Cruz said, to cheers.
“In the midst of this negotiation, the Ayatollah Khamenei led thousands of Iranians in chanting death to America while they burned American flags and Israeli flag,” Cruz continued to more applause. “Iran has stated its objective to murder as many Americans as possible. They are not seeking peace with us.”
“This deal is a complete capitulation to radical Islamic theocratic zealots who want to murder millions of Americans,” Cruz added, again to rousing cheers from those in attendance.
Others, at one point, chanted, “We want Ted.”
CODEPINK’s Benjamin responded to Cruz, by accusing him and the anti-nuke deal activist of being “religious zealots” who want to see “a war in the Middle East.”
“It’s the radical religious zealots on both sides who don’t want the deal,” Benjamin said to boos.
One man could be heard shouting, “What planet is she from?”
Cruz went on to take Benjamin to task for insulting the crowd.
“I will say, is it true there are radical religious zealots elsewhere. Of course. The difference is nobody is proposing giving radical religious zealots nuclear weapons to use to annihilate people who have a different faith then they do,” Cruz responded.
This led another CODEPINK ally to scream and shout at Cruz.
“Sir, are you scared to have a conversation?” Cruz fired back at the protestor. “Are you scared of the truth?”
“Sir, I recognize you find the truth very offensive, but under the first amendment, debate means you have to listen to things you disagree with,” Cruz added over the man’s shouts. “And I have listen to what you have said. I would ask you to show the same courtesy, particularly since you have come to our event and crashed it.”