CLEVELAND ― A clear theme has emerged at the Republican National Convention this week: Put Hillary Clinton in prison. The battle cry adorns T-shirts. It is scrawled on posters. It has even come from the mouths of official speakers at the podium inside the Quicken Loans Arena.
But for all boisterous chants of “LOCK HER UP,” even many of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters here don’t see any viable path to putting Clinton behind bars. A lot of them acknowledge the complications posed by due process as they call for the imprisonment of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. And some say the investigators have spoken with regard to emailgate and it’s simply time to move on.
Earlier this month, FBI Director James Comey announced he was recommending Clinton not be criminally charged for the way she handled classified information on a private server while secretary of state. Although he offered a blistering critique of Clinton and her team ― “they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” ― Comey said there was no proof anyone intended to break the law.
Jack Leinweber, an Air Force veteran from Texas in town for the convention, said he believes Clinton lied, “and we have a major problem with someone becoming commander-in-chief who’s been caught lying.” Leinweber feels certain that if a regular Joe like himself had handled classified information in the same way Clinton did, he’d be headed to the hoosegow.
But as for whether the Democrat should be locked up, “That’s not my call,” Leinweber noted. And if Clinton happens to win the presidency ― unfortunate as it would be ― “we’ll have to support her,” he said. “You always have to support the presidency.”
Donald Larson, a Cleveland-area Republican running for Congress, also said he’d be in prison for doing the same thing Clinton did. A Navy veteran, Larson said he’d handled sensitive information as a communications officer.
“If I had taken a [transceiver] off of the ship, took it to my condo in San Diego, ran all my ship’s message traffic through it, and then brought that back, they’d have hauled me in, put me in handcuffs, I’d be court martialed, and I’d still be in Fort Leavenworth,” Larson, 48, said. “Guaranteed.”
Larson said Comey should have recommended the Justice Department bring charges against Clinton. But now he holds out no such hope. Despite the convention’s primary refrain, he doesn’t expect to ever see Clinton in prison. “It’s done,” he said. “It’s over. That’s not going to happen.”
Pamela Nicolay is more optimistic. A 56-year-old from Placerville, California, Nicolay was walking through the scrum outside the arena proudly holding up a Trump sign. She said she hasn’t voted in a presidential election since casting a ballot for Ronald Reagan, but her passion for Trump was so great that she now finds herself in Cleveland. Nicolay despises Clinton ― if she were to win the White House, “I would run to the store as fast as I could and get as much ammo as I could and buckle down,” she said, laughing. And, yes, she believes Clinton should be in a jumpsuit and talking to her husband through glass.
“Martha Stewart went to prison for way less,” Nicolay said.
So what does the process look like for finally sending Clinton to a federal penitentiary?
“Get rid of the corruptness and the judges and stuff that’s in the Supreme Court,” she said.
Jeff Howe, a former Marine from Nashville, Tennessee, was walking through the crowd here holding a sign that read “Clinton for Prison.” (The same slogan is available on merchandise sold by vendors throughout the convention area; the T-shirts include the name Infowars.com, the website of radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.)
“She needs to be held accountable,” Howe said. “I have to be held accountable, shouldn’t she?”
Howe rattled off the assorted Clinton controversies ― Whitewater, Benghazi, the emails, etc., all of which were listed on the other side of his sign. “They’ve been doing these things for years,” he said of the Clintons. “You or I do that, we ain’t going to get away with it.”
Howe said he didn’t know if Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attacks amounted to criminality. And he acknowledged he didn’t know exactly what Clinton should be prosecuted for in order to send her to prison.
“I’m not a lawyer, brother,” Howe said. “But I would think she’s done some things that were wrong and she needs to be held accountable. Does that mean she should be in prison? She certainly shouldn’t be president.”
Howe then started a “lock her up” chant, with a handful of passersby jumping in before it gradually tapered off.
One Trump supporter who didn’t join the chorus was a Cleveland local named Ken, who declined to give his last name. Ken is committed to voting for Trump, believing that, despite his fabulous wealth and luxurious lifestyle, the Republican nominee genuinely cares for working-class folks like himself. But Ken’s devotion to Trump doesn’t extend to a desire to see Clinton sent to the pokey.
“It is up to the criminal system to determine that,” Ken said. “They have determined that she does not belong in prison, and I have faith in the system.”
Standing near a cart hawking Hillary-for-prison T-shirts, Ken made a quiet, personal plea for civility. “I truly feel that there should be common sense and respect for both parties,” he said.
Michael McAuliff contributed reporting.
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