Donald Trump suggested former Rep. Liz Cheney should be fired upon and called her a “war hawk,” as he escalated his rhetoric against Republicans who criticized him.
Trump’s remarks, made alongside ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson during a rally in Arizona came after Chiney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris saying Trump is a threat to democracy.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” Trump said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
According to CNN, Trump also called Cheney a “stupid person,” “very dumb” and “the moron.”
Cheney was one of the most active Republicans to criticize Trump after his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. She led the House select committee that investigated the attack. However, she lost her seat to a Trump-backed opponent in the Wyoming primary in 2022.
Cheney responded to Trump’s attacks saying: “This is how dictators destroy free nations.”
“They threaten those who speak against them with death,” she wrote on a social media post. “We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Trump’s campaign countered that he was critiquing Cheney’s alleged support for unnecessary military intervention.
“President Trump was clearly explaining that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to CNN.
Trump has increasingly escalated his rhetoric and his use of violent language against his critics. For example, Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoir that Trump raised the idea of shooting Black Lives Matter protesters while he was still President.
“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump asked, according to Esper.
Harris has used this violent behavior to attack Trump.
“Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls ‘the enemy from within.’ This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better,” Harris said. “This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power.”
