President Donald Trump incited the crowd at his rally in Nevada on Sunday to chant “lock him up” about former president Barack Obama.
Trump repeated his evidence-free claim that Obama “got caught spying on my campaign” during his speech in Henderson. He added: “We have him cold. Now let’s see what happens.”
Trump then hesitated, looked into the crowd and pointed.
In an instant they were chanting “lock him up” — a new riff on Trump’s 2016 election refrain, when he and his fans chanted “lock her up,” referring to Hillary Clinton.
Trump claimed Clinton should have been imprisoned for using a personal email server while she was secretary of state. His daughter, White House adviser Ivanka Trump, has used her personal email account for government business hundreds of times. First lady Melania Trump also reportedly used private email for government business.
As for Obama, the Justice Department’s own inspector general told the Senate late last year that neither the former president nor former vice president Joe Biden had any involvement in the decision to launch an investigation into possible collusion by the Trump campaign into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Since the last election, seven top people in Trump’s last campaign, his administration or close associates have been arrested: Former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, campaign operative Roger Stone, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates and Trump’s former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
Trump and his company are under investigation in New York for possible financial fraud, the Manhattan district attorney has said.