CASPER, Wyo. — Former Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney commented on social media after former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used violent imagery concerning her during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday.
During the onstage interview made at a campaign appearance in Glendale, Arizona, Trump criticized her foreign policy by calling Cheney “a radical war hawk” who would send troops into conflict zones.
According to the New York Times, Trump said, “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.”
In response, Cheney posted on X, formerly Twitter:
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.
During the interview, Trump again alluded to his opponents as the “enemy within,” and has in the past used terms such as “vermin,” saying they should be rooted out.
Cheney, who was known as a conservative Republican who supported most of Trump’s policies while in office, became one of his most vocal critics after he refused to concede his loss in the 2020 election, claiming repeatedly debunked widespread fraud that led to his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cheney is among a vocal group of Republicans, including several high-level former Trump cabinet appointees, who have voiced their opposition of Trump in part because of what they describe as his repeated authoritarian language and threats. Former Marine general and Trump Chief of Staff John F. Kelly said last month that Trump met the definition of a fascist.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
