In the 2016 presidential campaign, Republicans whined loudly about Hillary Clinton's home server. They were convinced that she had broken a federal law by using that server for government work. And "lock her up" became a rallying cry for them. Crowds at Trump rallies still chant the phrase when Clinton's name is mentioned.
They overlook a few facts. When asked to return the documents on the server to government control, she did so immediately. And according to the FBI, there were no classified documents on that server, and Clinton broke no federal laws by using it.
Fast forward to 2022, and we have a very different story. This time it's a Republican. Donald Trump took government documents to his home at Mar-A-Lago. Taking those documents was a clear violation of federal law. And making it worse, he lied when asked to return the documents.
After his repeated refusal to return the government documents, the FBI finally got a search warrant and retrieved the documents themselves. Among those documents were over 300 documents that were classified -- many of them Top Secret.
But no Republican is yelling "lock him up" -- far from it. In fact, they are trying to excuse Trump's obvious law-breaking. They want to give him a pass -- not because he's innocent, but because he is a Republican. They want to put Trump above the law (apparently not realizing that such a precedent would then apply to all future presidents of either party).
The Republicans were overjoyed when the FBI investigated Clinton, but they are angry (and calling for the FBI to be defunded) because of the investigation of Trump.
Hypocrisy seems to be a Republican value these days -- and this latest example is the ultimate example of it.
