Donald Trump Jr. took on critics of his father, President Donald Trump, in a speech to a student group in Florida on Tuesday, saying some officials high-up in government "don't want America to be America."
CNN played an excerpt from the speech, with anchor John Berman, filling in on "Anderson Cooper 360," describing Trump Jr. as "stoking a conspiracy vibe."
In the speech, Trump Jr. referred to the two top FBI employees who texted back and forth about how they feared a Trump victory and discussed an "insurance policy" to have him removed from office in the event he won.
Both FBI special agent Peter Strzok, who wrote the text, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, have since been removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump Jr. asked his audience to imagine a similar scenario in 2008 with a conservative FBI director and employees making similar statements about keeping Barack Obama out of office.
"What do you think would happen?" he asked. "Do you think the media would cover that? Do you think it would be brushed under the rug like, 'Oh, it's nothing, it doesn't mean anything'?"
On the contrary, Trump Jr. said, "There would be revolution in the streets."
He said his father talked about a "rigged system" throughout the campaign, and the FBI texts show he was right.
"There is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America," he said.