Trump draws outrage after saying Liz Cheney should have guns ‘trained on her face’

Ex-lawmaker says comment is ‘how dictators destroy free nations’ by threatening ‘those who speak against them with death’; Trump also slams supporters of US involvement in foreign wars

Congresswoman Liz Cheney gives a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, June 29, 2022, in Simi Valley, California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Congresswoman Liz Cheney gives a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, June 29, 2022, in Simi Valley, California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump suggested former lawmaker Liz Cheney should face combat with guns trained on her, comments his campaign said were intended to criticize her as a warmonger and which critics condemned as evidence he would target his enemies if he wins the presidential election.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there, with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said at a campaign event in Arizona on Thursday.

Trump also criticized others in Washington who support US involvement in foreign conflicts.

“They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,'” he said.

Cheney, a former top Republican in the US House of Representatives, is one of the most prominent Republicans to turn against Trump during his third consecutive bid for the presidency.

She has endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s election and has campaigned with her.

Republican presidential nominee former US President Donald Trump talks as owner Albert Abbas, right, listens during a visit to The Great Commoner, Nov. 1, 2024, in Dearborn, Michigan (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney said on social media on Friday, in response to Trump’s remarks. “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

A spokesperson for Harris called Trump’s rhetoric dangerous and violent.

“Donald Trump is so all-consumed by his grievances. The people who he disagrees with, and who he sees as opposing him politically, he treats as enemies,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said on MSNBC. “And now he’s going after Liz Cheney with this dangerous, violent rhetoric.”

Trump’s campaign said his remark had been misinterpreted.

“President Trump is 100% correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “This is the continuation of the latest fake media outrage days before the election in a blatant attempt to interfere on behalf of Kamala Harris.”

Trump has repeatedly talked about “the enemy from within” on the campaign trail and has vowed to prosecute political rivals, election workers, journalists and protesters, among others. He has said the military could be used against what he calls “radical left lunatics” if there is unrest on Election Day.

Democratic US presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media after walking off Air Force Two in Madison, Wisconsin, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

He also has vowed to pardon supporters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying his defeat in the 2020 election.

While serving in Congress during Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency, Cheney pressed him to keep US troops in Syria and restore harsh interrogation techniques for military detainees.

She lost her seat in Congress after helping to lead the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack. Her father, Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney, has also refused to back Trump’s third presidential run.

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