Trump says Liz Cheney might not be 'war hawk' if she had rifles firing at her

By Adriana Gomez Licon

Nov. 1, 2024 Updated 2:42 PM PT

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Donald Trump is suggesting that former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most prominent Republican critics, should have rifles “shooting at her” to see how she feels about sending troops to fight. Cheney responded by branding the GOP presidential nominee a “cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

The Republican presidential candidate has been using increasingly threatening rhetoric against his adversaries and talked of “enemies from within” undermining the country.

Trump has on occasion blamed Cheney and her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, for promoting U.S. military interventions abroad — including the war in Iraq, though Trump at the time said he supported it. He has focused his attacks on her since she began vocally opposing him over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

At an event late Thursday in Arizona with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked whether it is strange to see Cheney campaigning against him. The former Wyoming congresswoman has endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the White House race, joining the vice president at recent stops as they try to win over Republicans disaffected with Trump.

Trump called Cheney “a deranged person” and added: “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.

“You know 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,’” Trump said.

Cheney responded Friday in a post on X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. 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.”

Harris on Friday called Trump’s comments about Cheney “disqualifying.”

Speaking to reporters after arriving in Madison, Wis., Harris asked voters to consider who they’d prefer sitting in the Oval Office, driving the message she’s been emphasizing in the campaign’s closing week. She called Cheney “a true patriot” and said Trump “has increased his violent rhetoric.”

“His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme,” Harris said. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.”

Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, suggested that Trump was “talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one to her Cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”

Trump and his allies say his comments are being misconstrued. They say he was arguing that Cheney is a “war hawk” but would be less supportive of using the military if she had to fight in wars herself.

He doubled down Friday, calling Cheney a “disaster” during a stop at a restaurant in Dearborn, Mich. “She wouldn’t fight, she is a coward,” he said, adding that if she were ever put on a battlefield, “she’d be the first one to chicken out.”

Another prominent Trump critic, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, argued than the former president was “NOT calling for Liz Cheney to be executed in front of a firing line.”

“In Trump’s typically stupid, ugly fashion, he’s trying to make a point about Cheney’s stance on war,” Walsh said on X.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has been fixated on the Americans he believes have wronged him. He has portrayed them as worse than the United States’ foreign adversaries, referring to them as “enemies from within.” He’s threatened to use the federal government, including the military, to “go after” them.

Some of his former senior aides and Harris have labeled him a fascist in response. Among them is retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, who has warned that if Trump regained the White House he would govern like a dictator.

Trump has singled out for threats two California Democrats, Reps. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Adam B. Schiff of Burbank. He has also repeatedly threatened “long-term prison sentences” for those he claims could be “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, including political operatives, donors and elected officials.

He said people he labeled as “the enemy from within” should be “very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

Some of Trump’s supporters have said they believe his talk of vengeance is either justified or hyperbole.

Trump continues to face federal and state election interference charges stemming from the 2020 race. And he was convicted of 34 felonies in New York, in a case related to his paying hush money before the 2016 election to a porn star who alleged an affair.

Licon writes for the Associated Press. Los Angeles Times staff contributed to this report.