‘I Didn’t Say Lock Her Up’: Trump Distances Himself From Call to Jail Clinton

Former President Donald Trump denied ever calling to jail his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton in an interview with Fox News following his own conviction on 34 felony charges in New York.

In an interview with Fox & Friends Weekend, co-host Will Cain asked Trump about the infamous call to prosecute Clinton over her email server that has become a hallmark of his campaign rallies where crowds chant “lock her up.”

“You famously said, regarding Hillary Clinton, lock her up. You declined to do that as president,” Cain said.

“I beat her,” Trump replied. “It’s easier when you win. And they always said lock her up, and I felt — and I could have done it, but I felt it would have been a terrible thing. And then this happened to me.”

Trump then denied ever calling to jail Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton — I didn’t say lock her up, but the people said lock her up, lock her up. Okay,” Trump said. “Then, we won. And I say — and I said pretty openly, I said, all right, come on, just relax, let’s go, we’ve got to make our country great… And it would have been — think of it, you lock up the wife of a president of the United States —”

Fox host Rachel Campos Duffy interrupted with: “But they want to lock you up over $130,000 of an accounting thing.”

“And a perfectly stated accounting thing,” Trump said.

While Trump’s supporters often led the charge on “lock her up” chants, the former president frequently agreed with the call. “Lock her up is right,” Trump said to a crowd at a 2016 rally in Pennsylvania. At another rally that year in Colorado, Trump responded to the chant by telling the crowd, “I’m starting to agree with you.”

At a 2017 rally in Alabama, Trump responded to a “lock her up” chant by apparently blaming his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, of failing to prosecute Clinton.

It’s not just Clinton either. By ABC’s count, Trump has demanded the indictment or imprisonment of at least 26 other political foes.

Watch above, via Fox News.