AMY GOODMAN: We turn right now to CodePink’s Medea Benjamin, who disrupted Donald Trump’s speech last night. By the way, the speech, the longest in presidential convention history at an hour and 15 minutes. Media Benjamin stood up, holding a banner reading “Build bridges, not walls!” Her protest diverted cameras away from Trump’s speech. She was removed by security after the disruption. Medea Benjamin says she was later interviewed by the Secret Service. Democracy Now! caught up with her on the streets of Cleveland afterwards.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: I got a pass inside. I went to a press area, which I thought was as good as I was going to get. I had a sign that said “Build bridges, not walls!” I had read the speech beforehand, so I knew exactly when I wanted to interrupt: when he said, “I am your voice.” And I wanted to get up then and say, “You are not my voice. Your voice is one of hatred and anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobia and misogyny. And we need someone who will build bridges, not walls.”

And there was a lot of tussling going on with the people next to me, who were grabbing my sign and trying to pull me down. And there were all kinds of people around me doing various things. At one point, I know my legs were in the air. And I just kept speaking out that Donald Trump is dangerous for this country and dangerous for the world. I think it’s so important CodePink has been in three out of the four nights in the convention center interrupting Donald Trump. And I think we speak for millions of people in this country and people all over the world who are horrified with the idea of Donald Trump for president.

AMY GOODMAN: Who were the people that were sitting next to you, and what did they say? And who ended up dragging you out?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: There were other journalists next to me from conservative papers. And I know that because I looked at some of their name tags. And they also were clapping so much during the speech. You know, if you’re an objective journalist, you’re not going to get up and clap when Donald Trump comes in and after every two sentences. So they were very enthusiastic press, and they were really upset when I got up, and immediately started trying to tackle me.

DELEGATES: U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

AMY GOODMAN: You got an early transcript of the speech. Did anything surprise you in it?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, I was—I found it interesting that before Donald came on, there were—there’s a Republican gay businessman. There were people who talked about gay rights. And Ivanka was really focusing on women’s rights and how great her husband—her father was for women. And I think Donald Trump, in the beginning of the speech, tried to come across as somebody who would unite this country. And, of course, it’s all about how he’s a great builder, builder, builder. And then he got, at one point, very negative. And his talk about how we are besieged by immigrants who are coming across our border and then murdering people is such a horrible thing to be focusing on, when 99 percent of the immigrants are peaceful, hard-working people who have contributed so much to this society. I just got back from Latin America, and I’ve been to the Middle East a lot, and I know people are really terrified about Donald Trump, as well as our friends here who are Muslim and our friends here who are Latino.

DELEGATES: Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

MEDEA BENJAMIN: When he starts in his rhetoric and people start yelling “Build that wall! Build that wall!” that’s a very scary thing. So, I think it was very appropriate to be there with the “Build bridges, not walls!”

AMY GOODMAN: That is Medea Benjamin, the founder of CodePink, the women’s peace group. She disrupted Donald Trump’s speech last night, holding a banner reading “Build bridges, not walls!” This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. We are “Breaking with Convention: War, Peace and the Presidency,” everyday two-hour expanded broadcast from the Cleveland Republican convention here in Ohio. Next week we’ll be in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.

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AMY GOODMAN: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” The Rolling Stones. It was closing song last night after Donald Trump’s speech, the longest in presidential convention history. Over 100,000 balloons were dropped as the song played and the family was on the stage.