Jeff Sessions Raises Eyebrows With 'Lock Her Up' Line

He laughs along as high school students begin the chant about Clinton
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 24, 2018 12:07 PM CDT

The attorney general gave a speech to young conservatives Tuesday in which he mocked the way colleges are "coddling" students as part of a liberal movement. But attracting far more attention is that Jeff Sessions laughed along as the high school students in the audience began chanting, "Lock her up" in reference to Hillary Clinton—and then repeated the line himself. Politico sees it as a "remarkable" utterance from the nation's top law enforcement officer, though not all coverage was as concerned with it. A story on the speech by Fox News, for example, doesn't mention it. The chant began amid Sessions' ridicule of "supercilious snowflakes" on college campuses at the Turning Point USA High School Leadership Summit.

"I like this bunch, I gotta tell ya, you’re not going to be backing down. Go get 'em! Go get 'em!" he told the group. The chant then began, and Sessions, chuckling, repeated the line once himself, adding, "I heard that a long time over the last campaign." The right-wing site Twitchy rounds up outraged reaction from "Twitter libs," including former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who said Session should resign immediately. "Wait a second," points out Twitchy. "Isn't this exactly what Donald Trump wants to happen, which could then trigger the end of the Mueller investigation?" (Before Sessions spoke, Nikki Haley had a much different message to the group: Enough with trying to "own the libs" in public discourse, she urged.)

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