In an attempt to defend his father against a third criminal indictment, Eric Trump scolded those who try to “imprison political opponents” – seemingly forgetting his father once advocated imprisoning his own political rival.
Eric Trump, the second son of Donald Trump, joined Fox News host Jesse Watters on Wednesday evening to lambaste the “nonsense” and “slanderous” allegations piling on the former president.
The middle Trump son called the most recent allegations another “lie” in what he believes to be a politically motivated indictment against his father as he seeks re-election for a third time.
“We’re no better than some of these third-world countries around the world. We are literally trying to imprison political opponents, we’re better than this,” Eric Trump said on Jesse Watters Primetime.
He went on to claim the Department of Justice (DoJ) was trying to throw his father his jail for “political speech” regarding statements Donald Trump made in the weeks leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
But Eric Trump’s comments were cloaked in irony as many noted that his father famously led chants of “lock her up” about his political opponent Hillary Clinton during his campaign in 2016.
“Eric Trump stood at his father’s rallies shouting, "lock her up!" a user tweeted.
“Yeah, I have been to and watched 75 Trump rallies with, “Lock her up!” happening, so …” Ron Filipkowski wrote.
Donald Trump spent much of his 2016 campaign asserting the Democratic candidate, Ms Clinton, was untrustworthy and should be prosecuted due to an email controversy.
At rallies, Trump supporters repeatedly chanted “Lock her up!” to which Donald Trump eventually said he agreed with.
Later, in 2019, Eric Trump took the “Lock her up!” statement and suggested a modification to apply to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“How do you think his son is feeling after embezzling a lot of money?” Eric Trump said. “A lot of crookedness, he is not feeling too good. Maybe ‘Lock her up!’ goes to ‘Lock him up!’”
But despite the now-infamous chant advocating for the imprisonment of a political opponent, Eric Trump insisted people were above that on Wednesday evening and vouched that his father’s statements about election fraud were “perfect” and should not be subject to charges.
The Trump son told Mr Watters his father was “going to fight like hell” against the most recent indictment.
Donald Trump is expected to appear in federal court on Thursday afternoon for his arraignment where he will be formally charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
