‘Lock her up!’ US attorney general Jeff Sessions laughs as students chant anti-Clinton slogan

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions seemed to join in as conservative teenagers chanted the former Trump campaign anti-Hillary Clinton slogan “Lock her up” at a high school student event in Washington on Tuesday.

Sessions was delivering remarks promoting free speech and conservative values at Turning Point USA’s High School Leadership Summit at George Washington University.

During his speech, he criticized universities for “coddling” young people and said he could tell that the students in front of him were able to handle political debate and political attacks. “I like this bunch, I gotta tell you. You’re not going to be backing down. Go get ‘em. Go get ‘em,” he said.

At that moment, chants of “Lock her up” began. Sessions, the top law enforcement official in the country, briefly joined in, laughing, before saying: “I heard that a long time over the last campaign,” and then continuing on with his speech.

Trump frequently called for Clinton to be jailed and used the “Lock her up” chant as a rallying cry at his campaign events, referring to the controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Trump has also criticized Sessions himself for being “very weak” on what he alleges are Clinton’s crimes. Sessions appointed a federal prosecutor to look into Clinton earlier this year, but did not appoint a formal special counsel.

Reacting to Sessions echoing the students’ cries of “Lock her up,” one MSNBC commentator noted that Sessions has appeared to resist Trump’s efforts to be more loyal to him personally. “This looks like a total pivot in this moment for the attorney general,” she said.

Earlier in the speech, Sessions said that the coddling of young people at universities was “actively preventing them from scrutinizing the validity of their beliefs.”