Cheney criticized Trump’s aggressive rhetoric: “This is how dictators destroy free nations”

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney fired back at Donald Trump after the former president darkly suggested putting Cheney in the line of fire, criticizing her as a “war hawk.”

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They issue death threats to those who oppose them,” Cheney wrote Friday on X. “We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

Trump attacked Cheney at an event with Tucker Carlson in Battleground Arizona on Thursday night.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said of the former Wyoming congresswoman as he went after her and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Let’s put her there with a nine-barrel rifle shooting at her, okay?” Trump said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, well, with guns pointed at her face.”

Trump continued: “You know, they’re all military hawks where they sit in Washington in a nice building and say, ‘Gee, well, let’s send… let’s send 10,000 troops straight into the jaws of the enemy.’ ‘”

The Harris campaign called Trump’s phrase “nine guns” a reference to the traditional nine-gun “firing squad.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, responding to the comments later Friday, said they should be “disqualifying.”

“Anyone who wants to be president of the United States and uses violent rhetoric like this is clearly disqualified and has no right to be president,” Harris said. “Representative Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country before section. But Trump increasingly views his political opponents as enemies, constantly seeks revenge, and becomes increasingly unstable and unhinged.”

Cheney, a Republican but a vocal critic of Trump for his behavior after the 2020 election and on January 6, 2021, endorsed Harris in the 2024 election.

While campaigning with Harris, Cheney called Trump a threat to democracy and the Constitution.

“We see this every day: someone who was willing to use violence to try to seize power to stay in power, someone who is an irreparable disaster, frankly, in my opinion, and we must do everything possible to ensure he doesn’t get re-elected,” Cheney told ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” earlier this fall after publicly endorsing Harris.

Trump’s remarks against Cheney are the latest in a series increasingly dark and violent campaign rhetoric.

The former president further amplified his “enemy within” narrative after previously proposed When it comes to the 2024 elections, Democrats pose a greater threat to the United States than major foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.

“We have an enemy from within,” he told Carlson on Thursday. “We have very bad people, and these people are also very dangerous. They would like to destroy our country. They would like our country to be a good communist country or a fascist country, in any way possible. And we have to be careful with that.”

Harris campaign senior adviser Ian Sams responded to Trump’s comments during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, during which he called the former president “consumed by his grievances.”

“I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates,” Sams said. “You have Donald Trump talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one of them into his office. That’s the difference in this race.”

Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Friday that Trump’s words were taken out of context.

“President Trump CLEARLY explained that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them rather than go into battle themselves,” Leavitt wrote on X.

Later on Friday, Trump offered a similar spin on his comments as they remained the focus of the campaign.

“All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she’s a fight hawk and a stupid one at that, but she doesn’t have the guts to fight herself,” Trump wrote on social media.

“It’s easy for her to say, sitting far from where the death scenes are taking place, but put a gun in her hand and let her go fight and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!'” Trump wrote.

ABC News’ Lali Ibssa, Surin Kim, Kelsey Walsh and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.