No, Trump didn’t say Liz Cheney should ‘face the firing squad’

It’s no secret that Donald Trump loathes former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a leading critic of the former president who joined nine other Republicans in supporting his second impeachment and served as vice chair of the House Select Committee that investigated the 2021 Capitol riot and is now campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris. But contrary to what you may have heard, Trump did not say that Cheney “should be shot” (as reported by CNN). reported), recommend “executing her” (as CNN anchor Sarah Sidner stated), invite her to “face the firing squad” (as AtlanticDavid Graham approved), or make her a “dark and ominous threat” of “death” (as New RepublicHafiz Rashid claimed).

Here’s What Trump Actually Said About Cheney During interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign event in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday night: “She’s a radical war hawk. it’s… you know, with guns pointed at her face.” Referring to politicians who tend to support US military intervention, Trump added: “You know, they’re all war hawks when they sit in Washington in a nice building and say, ‘Gee, let’s send, let’s send 10,000 troops straight into the jaws of the enemy.’ .

Trump’s remarks about Cheney reflect a standard complaint about armchair interventionists: They are insulated from the consequences of the wars they support and do not pay enough attention to the human cost. While he may have expressed this view particularly forcefully, he did not argue that Cheney deserved to be shot or killed.

Still, Cheney joined other Trump critics in calling his comments a death threat. “This is how dictators destroy free nations,” she said. 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.”

A blatant misrepresentation of Trump’s comments. Part from sampleand it reflects a broader problem. Four days before the presidential election, people who it’s fair to worry about what a second Trump term could mean may have a chance to convince wary voters that he authoritarian instinctsreflected in his frequently expressed wish punish his political opponents after he returns to power, make him unfit for work. But when Trump’s critics try to do this by distorting easily verifiable facts, they encourage potentially persuasive voters to dismiss the allegations against him as false fearmongering.

This episode is like What’s happened after Trump was asked during a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo a couple of weeks ago if he “expects chaos on Election Day” if “you win.” Trump said the “National Guard or, if really necessary, the military” could “handle” riots orchestrated by “radical left-wing lunatics” because “they can’t let that happen.” New York Times inaccurate reported that Trump “openly suggested sending the military against American citizens simply because they oppose his candidacy,” and other news outlets offered a similar account.

Although Trump did not say what exactly Time claimed that during this interview he said other things that caused considerable concern. “We have two enemies,” he said. “We have outside enemyand then we have enemy from within. AND enemy from withinin my opinion, more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries, because if you have a smart president, he can deal with them quite easily.”

As an example of an “enemy within,” Trump cited Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who led Trump’s first impeachment and is now running for the Senate. “The hardest thing to deal with are these crazy people we have inside, like Adam Schiff,” he said. “Think about it. This guy is going to be a senator.” Trump called Schiff a “total scumbag” who “put our country” in “danger.”

These comments illustrate Trump’s penchant for portraying his political opponents as traitors, lumping his enemies with the enemies of the nation. His is similar called journalists who insulted him as “enemies of the people” and called Americans who disagreed with him “enemies of the people.”communists” “Marxists” “fascists” “leftist radicals are crazy” “sick people,” And “parasiteThis is all bad enough without Trump telling Bartiromo that he favors using the military against anyone who dares oppose him.

Trump’s actual threats to Liz Cheney are also genuinely troubling, especially because they reflect his general trend approve the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of people who cross his path. In March 2023, Trump said members of the January 6 committee “must be held accountable for lying and, quite frankly, TREASON!” A year later Trump stated that Cheney “should go to jail along with the rest of the Unelected Committee!”

In June Trump general Truth Social post that said Cheney was “guilty of treason.” The post added: “True, if you want military tribunals to be televised.” Since Trump has “denied” this report, we can reasonably conclude that he believes Cheney, whom he has already charged with treason, should face a military tribunal. Again, that’s bad enough, except for the inaccurate claim that Trump told Carlson that Cheney should “face the firing squad.”

The Trump campaign quickly dealt with such false characterizations. “Even the Left Exposes the Latest Fake News,” reads the headline above press release campaign published today. It quotes “Never Trumper Joe Walsh” who marked that “Trump did NOT call for Liz Cheney’s execution”; Vox writer Zach Beauchamp, who also watched that “Trump did not threaten to execute Liz Cheney” but instead “called her a hawk, which is what liberals have been saying about her for ages”; And Cause participant Kat Rosenfield, who said journalists are “lying to their audience” when they equate his criticism of Cheney with recommending her execution.

Despite exposing this distortion, the press release illustrates Trump’s reflexive mislabeling of his critics. Walsh, now a radio talk show host, is a former Republican congressman with a Club for Growth endorsement and generally conservative views. He is a former Trump supporter who spoke out against him in 2018. While no one would mistake Beauchamp or Rosenfield for conservatives, that doesn’t make them “leftists.” But as Trump says, anyone who opposes him is a “radical left lunatic,” part of the “enemy from within.”

This attitude illustrates Trump’s vindictive demagoguery, combining narcissism with authoritarianism. This is an important factor in deciding whether he should be entrusted with the powers of the presidency again. Instead, we are talking about dishonesty journalists who distort reality in desperation to avoid such an outcome.