CNN
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Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed in a new interview that he never called for “locking her up” to jail his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump, who was convicted last week of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and faces a possible prison sentence, was asked in an interview that aired on Fox News on Sunday why he never sent her to prison when he said “I often said, ‘Put her in jail,'” about Clinton during his presidency.
In his response, Trump said he decided it would be a “terrible thing” to jail Clinton, adding: “I didn’t say, ‘Lock her up,’ but the public will say, ‘Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up.'”
Facts First: Trump’s claim that he “didn’t say, ‘Lock her up.'” is false. Trump has called for Clinton’s incarceration on multiple occasions, including using the phrase “Lock her up.”
Trump frequently used that rhetoric in criticizing Clinton’s email practices while she was secretary of state during the Obama administration, sparking a federal investigation, though Clinton was never charged with a crime.
At 2016 campaign rallies, as supporters chanted “put her in jail,” Trump sometimes paused to wait for the chanting to continue, and at other times explicitly repeated the phrase himself.
“They should put her in jail for what she’s done,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina in October 2016, after the crowd chanted “Put her in jail!”
“‘Send her to prison’ is the right thing to do,” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania in October 2016.
Trump, in different language, also explicitly called for Clinton to be imprisoned.
“Hillary Clinton needs to go to prison, OK? She needs to go to prison,” Trump said during a speech in California in June 2016. “She needs to go to prison,” he repeated in a speech in Florida in October 2016. And after Clinton said during an October 2016 presidential debate that “it’s a very good thing that someone with Donald Trump’s temperament isn’t in charge of the laws of this country,” Trump responded, “Because you’d be in prison.”
Trump softened his rhetoric shortly after defeating Clinton, saying he didn’t want to hurt her and didn’t feel strongly about the prosecution, but during his 2020 reelection campaign he returned to calling for “put her in lock down.”
“She should be put in jail,” Trump said at a rally in Ohio in January 2020. At a rally in Georgia in October 2020, after the crowd chanted “Put them in jail” regarding the Biden family, Trump said, “Put them in jail. Put the Bidens in jail. Put Hillary in jail.”
