The audience chanted “Lock him up” during Hillary Clinton’s Democratic National Convention speech in what Michael Steele called “probably the most rich, ironic moment in political history.”
“You can see it on her face at one point, she was just kind of like, getting in the groove of it. And I don’t blame her,” the former Republican National Committee chair said on MSNBC Monday night.
“She’s always been the bogeyman for a lot of Republicans for a long time,” he continued. “But this whole idea of locking her up because of crimes she never committed and wrongdoing that she was never involved with, and to have someone who’s now sitting there running for president with 34 convictions — yeah, it’s a little bit ironic to have that moment unfold.”
Former President Donald Trump, who made “Lock her up” a rallying cry of his 2016 campaign against Clinton, was found guilty in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 18. The Republican nominee also faces dozens of other felony charges in other cases.
Clinton smiled but did not respond to the chants during her speech.
Trump often called for Clinton to be jailed during the 2016 presidential race, criticizing her improper use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. Clinton was federally investigated over her email practices but never charged with a crime.
After Trump was convicted, he attempted to rewrite history on that front, claiming that he never said the three-word phrase about Clinton.
