Trump says “war hawk” Liz Cheney should be shot to escalate violent rhetoric against his opponents

CNN
—

Donald Trump said former Rep. Liz Cheney was a “war hawk” who should be shot as he raged against one of his most prominent intraparty critics during his campaign Thursday night in Arizona.

“She is a radical war hawk. “Let’s put them there with a nine-barreled gun shooting at them, okay?” the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. “Let's see what she thinks, you know, with the guns pointed at her face.”

Trump also lambasted Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in the House, calling her “very stupid,” a “stupid person” and “the idiot.”

Trump's proposal to shoot Cheney represents an escalation of the violent language he has used to target his political opponents. And it comes just days before an election in which the former president – who never accepted his defeat in 2020 – has already eroded public trust. In recent weeks he has also suggested military action against political opponents, whom he has described as “the enemy within.”

Cheney is perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in his supporters' riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. She played a leading role on the House special committee that investigated the attack and was later ousted from her deep-red seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives in 2022 by a Trump-backed primary opponent.

In recent weeks, Cheney has campaigned alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, urging Republicans to put aside party differences to support the Democrat and reject a candidate they say poses a threat to democracy.

Trump said Thursday he was surprised that former Vice President Dick Cheney also supported Harris because he pardoned Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted of perjury in 2007.

“I don’t blame him for holding on to his daughter, but his daughter is a very stupid person — very stupid,” Trump said.

Trump said Cheney was a “stupid person” and claimed that when she led Republicans in the House of Representatives, the Wyoming Republican “always wanted to go to war with the people.”

“You know, they're all war hawks when they sit in a nice building in Washington and say… 'Let's send 10,000 troops straight into the jaws of the enemy,'” he said.

Trump's use of violent language dates back to his first presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, when he suggested a heckler deserved to be “beaten up” and said he would happily punch another in the face.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoirs that during his time in office, Trump floated the idea of ​​shooting protesters who took to the streets around the White House following the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

“Can’t you just shoot her? “Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump asked, according to Esper.

He began his bid for the 2024 Republican nomination by telling the Conservative Political Action Conference, “I am your retaliation.” Days later, he said at a rally in Waco, Texas, that the 2024 election would be “the final battle.” .

And throughout his campaign, he has referred to those convicted for their actions during the Capitol riot as “hostages.”

Harris has pointed to Trump's actions and rhetoric – including in a speech she gave this week at the Ellipse in Washington, the same venue where Trump gave his speech on January 6, 2021 – as she seeks to appeal to independents and moderate Republicans to court.

“Donald Trump intends to use the U.S. military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. He calls people “the enemy from within.” “This is not a presidential candidate thinking about how to improve his life,” Harris said in her speech Tuesday night. “This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and seeking uncontrolled power.”

This story has been updated with additional details.