CODEPINK Press Release
March 22, 2015
Contact: Alli McCracken, CODEPINK National Coordinator,Alli@codepink.org, 860 575 5692
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Co-founder, Medea@codepink.org, 415-235-6517
When: Monday, March 23rd at 10:45AM
Where: Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902
Visuals: Protesters in colonial clothing inside Congress
Washington DC -- On Monday, March 23rd, the peace group CODEPINK will be attending an event hosted by the Foreign Policy Initiative where Senator Tom Cotton will deliver a keynote speech regarding ‘National Security Priorities in an Increasingly Dangerous World.’ Dressed as Colonial Revolutionaries and carrying Constitutions, members of CODEPINK will read Sen. Cotton an “Open Letter from the People of the United States.” The CODEPINK letter is a response to Cotton’s open letter to the government of Iran that purports to school Iranians on the US Constitution but is really designed to quash the nuclear talks.
Cotton’s letter, signed by 46 other Republicans, falsely states that Congress has the power to revoke any nuclear deal reached with President Obama. The letter has received widespread condemnation from international peace groups, Secretary of State John Kerry, the foreign minister of Iran Ayatollah Khomenei, and President Obama himself.
“We will teach the Senator that under our Constitution, the President has the power to negotiate international agreements, which then become international law,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin. “We will also let him know that 68 percent of Americans favor direct talks with Iran, while only 29 percent oppose them--and that his constitutional duty is to represent the American people.”
In “colonial” costumes, CODEPINK will deliver the letter to Cotton at this event, which was signed by nearly 5,000 supporters.
“Senators like Tom Cotton who aren’t giving these negotiations the chance to come to fruition are pushing our country closer and closer to another violent and unnecessary war in the Middle East,” said CODEPINK Director Alli McCracken. “It’s our duty, as patriots who care about the future of our country, to try to stop them.”
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