CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour asked former FBI director James Comey on Tuesday if he should’ve restricted people from saying “lock her up” because the phrase amounts to “hate speech.”
Comey asserted during the interview that President Donald Trump targets private citizens with investigations and the power of the executive, citing Trump “calling for the locking up of his political opponents, including people like me.”
“Of course, ‘lock her up’ was a feature of the 2016 Trump campaign,” Amanpour said. “Do you in retrospect wish that people like yourself, the FBI, I mean, the people in charge of law and order, had shut down that language—that it was dangerous potentially, that it could’ve created violence, that it’s kind of hate speech. Should that have been allowed?”
Comey explained the First Amendment to Amanpour, replying, “That’s not the role for government to play. The beauty of this country is people can say what they want, even if it’s misleading and it’s demagoguery.”
