Trump says war hawk Liz Cheney should be shot as he escalates violent rhetoric against his opponents

Donald Trump said former Rep. Liz Cheney is a “war hawk” who should be shot as he fumed at one of his most prominent intraparty critics while campaigning Thursday night in Arizona.

“She is a radical war hawk. Let’s set her up with a nine-barrel rifle shooting at her, okay?” the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “Let’s see how she feels about it, like, with a gun pointed at her face.”

Trump also insulted Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in the House leadership, calling her “very dumb,” a “stupid person” and an “idiot.”

Trump’s proposal to fire Cheney represents an escalation of the aggressive language he has used against his political opponents. And it comes days before an election in which the former president, who has never accepted his 2020 defeat, has already undermined public confidence. In recent weeks, he has also proposed military action against political opponents, whom he called the “enemy within.”

Cheney is perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. She played a leading role on the House Select Committee that investigated the attack. was later overthrown from her deep-red House seat in Wyoming against a Trump-backed primary opponent in 2022.

In the evening, Cheney responded to Trump’s comments by saying, “This is how dictators destroy free nations.”

IN publish on Xcontinues the former congresswoman: “They threaten death to those who oppose them. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

In Cheney’s final weeks campaigned together Vice President Kamala Harris is calling on Republicans to put aside partisan differences to support a Democrat and reject a candidate she says poses a threat to democracy.

Following outrage over the remark, the Trump campaign on Friday issued a statement, which it later clarified, in defense of the former president.

“President Trump is 100% correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them instead of fighting them themselves. This is a continuation of the latest fake media outcry days before the election in an apparent attempt to intervene on behalf of Kamala Harris,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt.

Trump said Thursday he was surprised by former Vice President Dick Cheney. also supported Harris because he pardoned Cheney’s former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, who was convicted of perjury in 2007.

“I don’t blame him for staying with his daughter, but his daughter is a very stupid person, very stupid,” Trump said.

Trump called Cheney a “stupid person” and said that when the Wyoming Republican was in House Republican leadership, “she always wanted to fight people.”

“You know, they’re all war hawks when they sit in Washington in a nice building and say… ‘Let’s send 10,000 troops straight into the jaws of the enemy,’” he said.

The office of former President George W. Bush, in whose administration Dick Cheney served as vice president and Liz Cheney worked at the State Department, declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.

Long history of violent rhetoric

Trump’s use of violent language dates back to his first presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, when he suggested one critic deserved a “beating” and said he wanted to punch another in the face.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoirs that while in office, Trump raised the idea of ​​shooting protesters who took to the streets around the White House after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something? According to Esper, Trump asked.

He began his bid for the 2024 Republican nomination by telling the Conservative Political Action Conference, “I am your nemesis.” Days later, he told a rally in Waco, Texas, that the 2024 election would be the “final battle.”

And throughout his campaign, he referred to those convicted for their actions during the Capitol riot as “hostages.”

Harris pointed to Trump’s actions and rhetoric, including the speech she gave this week from the Ellipse in Washington, the same site where Trump gave his speech on January 6, 2021 – as she tries to attract independents and moderate Republicans.

“Donald Trump intends to use the US military against American citizens who simply do not agree with him. He calls people “enemies from within.” This is not a presidential candidate who thinks about how to make your life better,” Harris said in a speech Tuesday night. “He is an unstable man, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and seeking uncontrollable power.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Kristen Holmes and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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