anderson cooper, you were listening with us. we were told he would say he was stepping down. he did not say that. he didn t even come close. is that what you heard as well, & er son? what we heard were the same lying we ve heard for more than two weeks. we heard a man who clearly believes he is egypt. he kept repeating this lie, this is all some sort of foreign interference, and that s something we ve heard on state television, they re being paid, they re being 3409 investigated to go there, they re being paid $100 or 100 euros, depending on the report you hear. he talked about they will not listen to any foreign dictation, trying to play on egyptian pride, saying they re resisting from others who dictate what they want. again, these are he says it s not about me, hosni mubarak,
people very, very angry. i think what we ve seen in the last two weeks or so in the statements from mubarak and his vice president, this is a regime which believes they are egypt. mubarak it seems ahas come to believe he is egypt. what the protesters are saying is you are not egypt. you are part of egypt, yes, you are part of you are the person that ruled us but this is the real egypt. this is what egypt can be. the government has fought back by saying, rhetorically saying that no, these protesters, foreign reporters are belittling egypt, are take making fun of egypt. i just don t think people are buying that anymore in egypt, certainly not the hundreds of thousands we re seeing now pouring into that square and the many who have poured into that square for more than two weeks now. you know, i think the lies of the regime have been laid bare. and one of the other things that
show mubarak delivering his speech to the people at tahrir square. they ll be able to see that image there and they will either be celebrating and continuing to dance and sing or they will be very, very angry, depending on what he says. his information minister has told egyptian state television that mubarak definitely is not going to step down. we ll have to wait and see what s going on. arwa dame on is on the phone for us in the crowd. you re down at tahrir square, arwa. tell us what you re seeing and hearing. well, wolf, we re out here among the masses where the mood is quite electric. the air is filled with anticipation. but as time is wearing on, people are also growing more anxious. one young person saying i was so happy coming down here tonight. and then i got a bit worried and now i m trying not to feel any emotion at all.
it s about the people of egypt. what you are looking at are the people of egypt. it s all about hosni mubarak, and he believes it s all about him. he continues to talk about getting out of a crisis. he believes what you are seeing is a crisis. that is not the crisis. the crisis is what his government has done to try to attack those demonstrators, shutting down the banks, shutting down the internet service, shutting down the trains. attacking them first with billy clubs and stick from the riot police, and when that didn t work, switchling to thugs, pro-government thugs. he keeps talking about we will not take dictation, i have never suck coupled to international pressure, he said i have lived for this homeland, i will not leave. we will always be dignified. he repeated the lies about a
reporter: okay. as you can see, wolf, people are absolutely enraged, saying that they feel hosni mubarak is absolutely out of touch with reality and they will not leave until he steps down. tomorrow is friday, which is usually a day of massive protests. i think that s exactly what will work. we did hear president mubarak say he would delegate some powers to the vice president omar suleiman, but we did not hear, at least according to our translation, the president of egypt saying he was stepping down. if anything he seemed to be suggesting he would stay in business until the september elections. he had all sorts of formulas for making sure they would be free and fair elections. let s bring in ben wedeman. i don t know if you were listening to the speech in the original arabic or in english, but what is your sense? i didn t hear, at least according to our translation hosni mubarak say he was