Donald Trump Uses Violent Language as He Suggests Prominent Liz Cheney Critic to ‘Point a Gun at Her Face’

Donald Trump has proposed putting former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney in front of a line of rifles as the Republican nominee’s rhetoric draws growing criticism ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election.

Trump used a meeting with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona on Thursday night to attack one of his most outspoken critics in his own party.

He said Cheney — the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney — was a war hawk and “very dumb.”

“Let’s set her up with a nine-barrel rifle shooting at her, okay?” Trump said this at an event in Glendale.

“Let’s see how she feels about it, well, with guns pointed at her face.”

Trump criticized politicians who escalate armed conflicts or start new ones “while they’re sitting in a beautiful building in Washington.”

On Friday morning, Cheney called the former president “vindictive, cruel and unstable” on social media.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” she wrote on X.

“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.”

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Cheney, who was a congresswoman from Wyoming from 2017 to 2023 and served as chair of the House Republican Conference, has been a prominent critic of Trump, supporting her rival Kamala Harris and even campaigning for the Democratic nominee.

Cheney has given speeches in support of Harris in several places where suburban Republican women are high on the voting rolls.

Numerous polls indicate Harris is more popular among female voters, and analysts say Cheney is trying to exploit the gender gap to ensure Trump does not return to the White House.

Trump has often been criticized for his decades-long statements about women in both public and private settings, which have been described as ranging from “inappropriate” to “grossly offensive” to “deranged.”

At a campaign event this week in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the 78-year-old said he was determined to protect women “whether they like it or not.”

Last year he was found guilty in a civil case of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s in a claim he said was a “fraud.”

Speaking on CNN, Tom Corbett, the former Republican governor of the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, also condemned Trump’s comments about Cheney, saying they “shocked” him.

“When you see actions like this, you certainly have to question the ability of anyone to fulfill the role of president,” Corbett said.

But in another key battleground, Michigan, Trump supporters cheered the Republican nominee’s comments as they stood in line to hear him speak at a campaign rally in Warren, near Detroit, on Friday.

Kim, from suburban Detroit, said the media had taken his remarks out of context.

“They changed everything, he said they made a difference. He said how much she would like it if a gun was pointed at her,” she said.

“He doesn’t want to send people to war, that’s what he says, that’s all it was, but the leftist media is taking it out of context, like they always do.”

Her friend Sandra, who has attended several Trump rallies, agreed, saying the media was “back to their old tricks.”

Kate, who waited in line for the rally for more than four hours, said Cheney was out of touch.

“Liz Cheney is an incompetent former congresswoman and has what I call Trump Derangement Syndrome. is unlikely to support them,” she said.

“He never said he wanted to destroy his enemies. When we said lock Hillary up, it was just a saying and she wasn’t locked up. He wants a fair system for all Americans.”

Clarissa, from downtown Detroit and a regular at Trump rallies, said she liked the former president because “he just says what he feels.”

With 15 Electoral College votes, Michigan is considered a critical state.

Joe Biden flipped it in favor of the Democrats in 2020 when he became president, after Trump flipped it red in 2016.

The latest spat between Trump and Cheney came as Democrats aired a new television ad narrated by Julia Roberts that depicts a woman “secretly” voting for Harris, against her husband’s advice.

The ad notes that ballots are confidential and that “no one will ever know” if you say one thing outside the voting booth and do another inside it.

Trump’s ability to attract female voters has been questioned by others in his own party.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who ran unsuccessfully against the former president for the Republican nomination, said his “hyper-masculine rhetoric” could encourage women to vote for Harris.

During a campaign event in Nevada on Thursday, Trump said that if he wins office, he would have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “work on women’s health.”

Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and former independent presidential candidate who also briefly tried to get on the Democratic ticket, said Trump promised him control of the nation’s public health agencies if he won Tuesday’s election.