In 2016 during the presidential campaigns and for years later as Donald Trump held more rallies just for fun, chants of “lock her up!” were common, becoming more a signature of the rallies than “make American great again.” Now, news of suspicions that the Trump administration removed potentially classified documents from the White House when Trump left office has the GOP virtually tongue-tied.
Sen Mitt Romney on Natl Archives review of Trump Mar-a-lago papers: "Clearly if classified documents were taken that would be of grave concern and its appropriate to follow the law. Frankly President Trump's misbehavior consists of a long list and you just add that to the total"
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) February 10, 2022
What Trump supporters wanted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “locked up” for was deleting emails from her private server, some of which investigators suspected of being classified. Republican politicians did everything in their power to fuel their rage. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on the 2016 primary trail hinted that he would put Secretary Clinton in prison if he were elected, saying that he would take her “out of the White House” and put her in a “different government housing.”  Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said that the Clinton email scandal proved that she, as a presidential candidate, was just not trustworthy.”
Today, Cruz has been silent so far about suspicions that Trump actually did what the GOP accused Clinton of doing and Romney offered only wishy-washy condemnations. Mitt Romney told reporters that this “misbehavior” by Trump had him “gravely concerned.”
‘Clearly if classified documents were taken that would be of grave concern and its appropriate to follow the law. Frankly President Trump’s misbehavior consists of a long list and you just add that to the total.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) had a different take, offering excuses for Trump.
‘Donald Trump didn’t go through there and say lets keep these and these and these I mean that’s not going to happen. You’ve got so many staff people and so many people that work for you that it was obviously some kind of mistake that it made a cardboard box that probably hasn’t been looked at since they left office a year and a half ago.’
Clearly, the whole “but her emails” outrage was, as was long expected, nothing more than political theater, because the GOP seems curiously unbothered by Trump’s removal of what was possibly classified material.
Twitter, on the other hand, had their own take. Read some of their comments below: