Crowd Chants 'Lock Her Up' After Feds Raid Omar's Home

Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home on Oct. 12, eleven days ago. On Friday in Sioux City, Iowa, a rally crowd chanted "lock her up" while the president who has denied any hand in the investigation called her a "terrible person" and demanded she resign from Congress.

The president, Donald Trump, spoke for more than an hour and a half at a midterm rally for Rep. Ashley Hinson, the Republican running for Senate. Election Day falls on Nov. 3, eleven days from now. The "lock her up" chant began as a shot at Hillary Clinton and has been a fixture of Trump's campaign trail ever since. Now it had a live target with an active criminal investigation behind her.

Who Has the Power

Omar called the immigration-fraud claim "insane" and said it rests on an online gossip blog. Asked in an MS NOW interview whether there was any truth to it, she said, "Not to my knowledge." Trump mocked the answer: "That's one of the worst answers I think I've ever heard." A person familiar with the investigation told NBC News the possible charges include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork.

Trump says he had nothing to do with the search. Former President Barack Obama said the search and the efforts to deport her amount to intimidation by Trump. Justice Department veterans were alarmed at the timing, so close to the midterms. The people who run the prosecutorial machine are the same people who benefit from a sitting critic being dragged through it.

What They're Calling Democracy

The rally also gave a small-scale view of how the ballot gets shaped before anyone votes. The Supreme Court ruled that student IDs cannot be used in New Hampshire for the midterms, granting an emergency request from the state backed by the Republican National Committee. The brief order said a federal judge shouldn't have changed voting rules so close to the Nov. 3 election. Rules shift when the powerful need them to, and the people holding those student IDs absorb the cost.

On the stage, state Rep. Joe Mitchell, who's running for Congress, presented Trump with a certificate for a made-up honor. "It's called the 'Man of the Century Award,'" Mitchell said, adding that Trump "has fought more for humanity and for America than any other president ever." Trump shook his hand and took the certificate. Trump also told the crowd he has "the right to run again" because "they cheated" and "rigged the election." He lost re-election to Joe Biden in 2020. He cited a figure of 25 million people entering the country without documentation under Biden. Customs and Border Protection data shows at most 10.2 million.

Politicians Eating Each Other

Trump boasted that he urged Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to keep running an ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton. The ad drew backlash from Republicans and Democrats alike. "You got to ride with it," Trump said he told Ramaswamy. Hinson, standing in the same ticket's orbit, said she believes the ad should come down: "I think about it as a mom, and you think about childhood having to relive that trauma. I think it's absolutely terrible." Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also called for its removal. Hinson had told NBC News she has "always worked with both sides to get things done for Iowa," and she skipped a September rally with Vice President JD Vance. Candidates fight over how much distance to put between themselves and a president with low approval ratings, while the machinery grinds on.

The Same Day, a Different Courtroom

The president skipped a deposition on Oct. 16, citing a "matter of national importance." BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the judge that matter turned out to be a political rally and a fundraiser. "He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition," Tobin said. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ordered Trump to sit for the deposition by Dec. 11 or risk dismissal of his $10 billion defamation suit against the BBC.

Protesters interrupted this speech far less than they have at recent events, according to NBC News. Whether anyone in that crowd noticed the dates, the raid eleven days ago and the vote eleven days away, is a question the rally didn't answer.