Most of Donald Trump’s rallies, at some point, descend into “lock her up” chants from his followers, though at the president’s event in New Hampshire last night, things were a little different.
Hillary Clinton is out; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in. As Business Insider explained:
Trump also reiterated claims that his impeachment was a “partisan hoax,” and he focused his attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This prompted the crowd to reprise chants of “lock her up” — another crowd favorite previously aimed at his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.Footage from the rally showed Trump did not join in the chants but gave a thumbs-up sign and appeared to smile as they continued.
We need not wonder why, exactly, the president’s supporters believe the House Speaker should be incarcerated; Trump’s already told us. After Pelosi punctuated the end of last week’s State of the Union address by tearing a copy of the speech in half, the president insisted, “It’s illegal what she did. She broke the law.”
In reality, that’s bonkers. Pelosi was given a copy of the speech, which she was free to do with as she pleased. For Trump to suggest the Speaker somehow committed a crime was ridiculous, even by his standards.
Indeed, if Trump wants to talk about those who flout the Presidential Records Act — which, again, does not apply to assorted copies of his speeches — the conversation should probably include his habit of tearing up official documents. But even putting these relevant details aside, there’s nothing politically healthy about a president’s base spending years calling for the incarceration of one of his rivals, only to then shift gears and call for the incarceration of another one of his rivals, neither of whom did anything wrong.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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