President Donald Trump told a rally crowd in Macon, Georgia, on Friday: “Lock up the Bidens.”
Trump was referring to reports that then-Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent, met with Chinese and Ukrainian business figures allegedly paying his son, Hunter Biden, to facilitate introductions to senior U.S. officials.
Trump appeared to be joking:
Trump: But they thought it was very unfair that Sleepy Joe who cannot answer a question… He really can’t answer a question. Well, Chris Wallace protected him with me. I talked about the Moscow three-and-a-half million payment. I talked about the billion dollars [from China]. Chris Wallace wouldn’t let that… He said, no, that’s not appropriate. Why? You mean the guy’s allowed to take three and a half a million bucks and we’re not allowed to talk to him about it? I’m telling you, that Biden family… And others, but that Biden family is corrupt. It’s a corrupt family.
Crowd: Lock them up!
Trump: And with me and my kids… Let me tell you, my kids… I’ll tell you something. [Laughs] Lock them up. You should lock them up. Lock up the Bidens. Lock up Hillary. Lock them up. Can you imagine if my kids did what this guy Hunter is doing?
The “lock her up” chant was among the more controversial features of Trump rallies in the 2016 presidential campaign, referring to claims that Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton had broken the law by using an illicit private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.