Trump rally crowd erupts with chants of ‘lock her up’ about Feinstein

Attendees at President Trump’s campaign rally in Iowa on Tuesday night chanted “lock her up” after the president questioned whether Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) leaked allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump invoked Feinstein while ticking through a series of attacks on various Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.).

“How about Sen. Feinstein? That’s another beauty,” Trump said.

{mosads}” ‘Did you leak the documents?’ ” he added, before portraying an exaggerated nervous denial from Feinstein.

The crowd broke into chants of “lock her up,” prompting laughter from Trump.

“I think they’re talking about Feinstein,” Trump said. “Can you believe it?”

Donald Trump’s Iowa crowd chants “lock her up!” at his mention of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The president laughs playfully. pic.twitter.com/a6KLrf8kzS

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 9, 2018

The senator issued a statement to The Hill shortly after the rally concluded, blasting Trump’s comments as “ridiculous and an embarrassment.”

“Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly. Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn’t me or my staff,” Feinstein said.

The jeer is a staple of Trump campaign rallies, though his supporters have typically used the chant in reference to 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

When Trump mentioned Clinton later in his speech, the crowd again began shouting “lock her up.”

Tuesday marked the first time the chant referenced Feinstein.

Trump has suggested that Feinstein leaked allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, who claimed that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her during a party when the two were in high school in 1982. Two other women later came forward to accuse the judge of sexual misconduct.

The president has provided no evidence that Feinstein leaked a letter from Ford, other than to suggest Feinstein’s body language indicates she was the source.

Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has repeatedly denied that her office leaked the letter.

“Did she leak it? 100 percent,” Trump said Tuesday night. “No, I don’t want to get sued – 99 percent. Now I can’t get sued.”

Trump has lamented that Kavanaugh did not receive “due process” in the face of the allegations, which he claimed without evidence on Monday were “a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.”

Updated at 9:12 p.m.