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Cindy Sheehan earned a live interview segments at the start of Monday's 7pm EDT Hardball on MSNBC, where she appeared from Texas with her sister, Deedee Miller, and then just past 7:30pm EDT Sheehan showed up live on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 with anti-war activist Pat Vogel.
After Sheehan went on at length about how the U.S. is “building bases the size of Sacramento, California in Iraq. They plan on never leaving” and “I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism. And if we don't stop them now, our babies and our unborn grandchildren will be fighting this," Matthews suggested: “You sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run."
In contrast, Cooper hit her with her own words, pressing her to re-affirm: “Do you really believe the President of the United States is the biggest terrorist in the world?” Cooper pushed her several times, but she wouldn't back off her claim.
An exchange on CNN:
COOPER: “Cindy, I was reading some of the essays that you've been writing about the war over the last couple of months. In one you say the war is blatant genocide and you go on to say, and I quote, 'Casey was killed in the global war of terrorism waged on the world and its own citizen by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world, George and his destructive Neo-con cabal.' Do you really believe the President of the United States is the biggest terrorist in the world?”
SHEEHAN: “I believe that he's responsible for the needless and senseless deaths of more people than any other organization right now. There was 3,000 people killed on September 11th, which was a tragic day. Our nation still mourned it. I still mourn for those people and their families. But tens of thousands of innocent people are dead in Iraq, Anderson, and there was no reason for the war. The war was based on lies and we know that now.”
COOPER: “But when you say that the President, I mean you're essentially saying the President is a terrorist. I mean I think a lot of people would hear that and think what are you talking about?”
SHEEHAN: “Well, you know, I've heard a lot of -- a lot of definitions of that and it's the definition they kill innocent people, you know, and his policies are responsible for killing innocent people and I say the organization is killing innocent people and it needs to stop. We know that he said there was weapons of mass destruction and we know he knows that there weren't. There was no link between al Qaeda and Saddam and we know he knows that there wasn't, so we need to stop the killing now and I'm here to confront him.”
COOPER: “You said that it's blatant genocide. I mean you really think the United States is trying to eliminate an entire group of people, all Iraqis?”
SHEEHAN: “There's 100, there's an estimate 100,000 to 200,000 innocent Iraqis dead because of our occupation, either by bullets and bombs or by disease, malnutrition and he says we're doing it for the Iraqi people. How many do we have to kill before we convince them that what we're doing is right over there?”
An exchange on MSNBC:
SHEEHAN: “And when I came down here and said I was staying until I meet with him or until August 31, I met him, I wholly disagree with him. We're not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and good will in the Middle East by killing innocent people or, I'm not even saying our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupation that they don't have food. They don't have clean water. They don't have electricity. They don't have medicine. They don't have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there and that's what will start building good will. Because we know they're building bases the size of Sacramento, California in Iraq. They plan on never leaving. And I see in the future, they're starting to beat the drums against Iran. And I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism. And if we don't stop them now, our babies and our unborn grandchildren will be fighting this.”
MATTHEWS: “Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?”
SHEEHAN: “No, not this time. I'm a one issue person. I know a lot about what's going on in Iraq but I don't know anything about anything else. And I want to focus my energy on bringing the troops home.”
MATTHEWS: “Okay. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run.”
