Trump Supporters Chant ‘Lock Her Up’ At Rally Hours After Manafort And Cohen Each Get Federal Convictions
Donald Trump’s campaign manager and his personal lawyer were both handed eight federal convictions each within a matter of hours on Tuesday, but supporters at Trump’s West Virginia rally are instead waiting for Hillary Clinton to go to jail.
The crowd at Trump’s Tuesday rally erupted into chants of “Lock her up!” just hours after both Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen were handed federal convictions. As Business Insider noted, the crowd seemed more interested in reliving one of the most popular sentiments from the 2016 campaign, when Clinton was investigated for her use of a private email server before the FBI declared that they would not recommend charges.
The chants came at a boisterous rally during which Trump took aim at some of his favorite targets, including the media and NFL protesters who protest during the national anthem. West Virginia gave Trump one of his largest win margins during the 2016 campaign and he remains a popular figure there. The state will also be important in the 2016 midterms, with Republicans looking to take a Senate seat from vulnerable Democrat Joe Manchin.
While the crowd at Trump’s rally may have been angling to see Hillary Clinton in prison, Michael Cohen faced some hecklers of his own as he left a federal courthouse in New York on Tuesday. After finalizing the terms of a plea bargain for eight charges of fraud and other offenses, Cohen heard chants of “Lock him up!” from some who had gathered to watch his proceedings, The Hill reported.
Michael Cohen leaves the federal courthouse in NYC to chants of "lock him up!" and shouts of "guilty!" pic.twitter.com/QmPPB07P8Q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2018
Paul Manafort had faced similar chants during his earlier court proceedings.
While Manafort’s convictions stemmed from financial crimes that predated his time as Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Cohen’s conviction had a direct connection to Trump and the 2016 presidential campaign. One of the convictions came for violating campaign finance law, and Cohen admitted to paying off two women on the direct orders of Donald Trump. It was not immediately clear if Cohen was working with investigators against Trump or if the president could be under investigation for his involvement in the payouts.
Many of Trump’s critics noted the irony of the campaign rally crowd’s chants to lock up Hillary Clinton on the same day two of the figures closest to Trump were headed to prison, and Twitter was abuzz with jokes about the chants.
Crowd at Trump #MAGA rally chants "Drain the Swamp! Drain the Swamp!" then pivots to "Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!"
Surreal on a day when two of Trump's top aides were handed 16 felony convictions between them, and both will, in fact, be locked up. pic.twitter.com/DCP4dKYAfp
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) August 21, 2018
Hours after Trump's campaign chairman was found guilty in one court and his personal lawyer pleaded guilty in another, his rally is chanting "Drain the Swamp" and "Lock Her Up!"
It's like a parallel universe.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 21, 2018
Donald Trump did not make reference to either Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen during his rally in West Virginia.
