Donald Trump has suggested that one of his most vocal Republican critics Liz Cheney would not be a “radical war hawk” if she was in a war herself and had guns “trained on her face”.
The Republican presidential candidate made the remarks during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, prompting criticism of his “violent rhetoric” from the Kamala Harris campaign.
“Let’s put her with a 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,” he said, to cheers from some members of the audience.
Cheney responded on Friday: “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,” she wrote in a post on X.
The comments sparked a row over his language, with the Harris campaign releasing a statement which said the comments were “dangerous”.
Defending Trump’s language, his campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the former president “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”.
Cheney represented a district in Wyoming for three terms in the US House of Representatives and was once the third highest ranking House Republican.
She has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, warning that Trump’s actions during the US Capitol riot were evidence that he “can never be trusted with power again”.
In the past month, she has made campaign appearances alongside Harris in an effort to reach disaffected Republicans in key swing states.
Though she voted mostly in line with Trump while he served in the White House, she fell out with him over the Capitol riot and voted in favour of his second impeachment.
Her father, former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, has also indicated he is among the Republicans who will cast their 2024 ballot for Harris.
Speaking to Carlson on Thursday night in Glendale, one of the largest cities in swing state Arizona, Trump said: “I don’t blame him for sticking with his daughter.”
Polls suggest Trump is locked in a dead heat with Harris in the race for the White House ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
