Protesters interrupt Leon Panetta at the DNC: 'No more war!'

(Image credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)

During a Democratic convention address by former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Wednesday, delegates interrupted him several times with chants of "no more war!" He appeared confused and uncertain how to respond, and ended up pausing his speech for a moment. A second chant of "lies, lies!" started up slightly later, which was drowned out by a counter-chant of "USA, USA!"

Panetta is a longstanding fixture of the Washington foreign policy establishment, and his speech focused on how Donald Trump's bizarre antics make him a questionable choice to become president. But he's also hawkish on the military, and his speech also argued that America should not "withdraw from the world." That is usually code for continued police actions and drone strikes around the globe, and predictably riled up the antiwar faction in the party.

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Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.