Trump says Liz Cheney wouldn't be a 'war hawk' if 'guns were pointed at her face'

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — At a stage event dominated by verbose rants and disparaging attacks against his opponents, former President Donald Trump suggested — just four days before Election Day — that one of his top Republican critics would not wage such a “war.” would Hawk” if she had guns “pointed at her face.”

Trump, sitting in a chair next to right-wing media star Tucker Carlson during what was supposed to be a live interview, told thousands of supporters on Thursday that President Joe Biden was a “stupid bastard” and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, was “scum.” .

He also said he would let Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, “do whatever he wants” on health policy in his second term, pointing out that his new political ally “is on the vaccines would like to deal with”.

“He really wants to deal with the pesticides and all the other things. I said he can do it,” Trump said of the former independent presidential candidate. “He can do whatever he wants. He wants to look at the vaccines. He wants – everything. I think it’s great,” Trump continued.

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But the former president, no stranger to personal attacks, reserved his harshest comments for former Rep. Liz Cheney. They were the latest example of Trump using violent rhetoric against his perceived enemies.

In a long and uncompromising remark about Cheney, Trump appeared to suggest that the former congresswoman would be less of a “war hawk” – as Trump called her – if she were in a war herself and had the guns “pointed in her face.”

“She is a radical war hawk. “Let’s put them there with a nine-barreled gun,” Trump said. “Okay, let’s see what she thinks. “You know, when the guns are pointed in their faces – you know they're all warmongers sitting in a nice building in Washington,” Trump continued.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Friday: “President Trump has clearly stated that warmongers like Liz Cheney are quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them rather than go into battle themselves.”

In an updated statement later Friday morning, Leavitt said Trump's comments were “100% accurate” and claimed the backlash to the comments was “the latest outrage in the fake media just days before the election in a blatant attempt to gain self-aggrandizement on behalf of.” Kamala Harris to interfere.”

After the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, the relationship between Trump and Cheney collapsed. Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the architects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have endorsed Harris over Trump.

“She's a stupid person,” Trump said of the former Republican congresswoman on Thursday night, also calling her “a bad person” and a “very stupid person.” Carlson referred to her as Dick Cheney's “repulsive little daughter.”

Trump explicitly told the crowd in Arizona that he would only lose next Tuesday's election if there was “fraud,” setting the stage for challenging a potential loss.

“Just limit the cheating,” he said. “The only thing that can stop us is cheating. It’s the only thing that can stop us.”

Liz Cheney recently appeared on the campaign trail with Harris and warned against Trump's efforts to undermine the will of voters.

Cheney responded to Trump on social media early Friday.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” she posted on wants to be a tyrant. #Women will not be silenced #VoteKamala.”

Campaign spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement that he disparaged Trump's comments, saying the former president “is so consumed by his grievances that he ignores the people he disagrees with and whom he considers political.” Opponents are treated as enemies.”

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, urged fellow Republicans to censure Trump over his comments and urged voters to reject his “calls for violence and retaliation” in a statement posted on X by to reject their organization to prevent gun violence.

“Declaring that a person should be shot just because they support another candidate is un-American,” she said. “Every Republican who claims to respect the Constitution and the rule of law has a responsibility to immediately speak out against Donald Trump’s dangerous statements.”

In other instances during the campaign, Trump has suggested that Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deserved the death penalty. He also called for shoplifters to be shot immediately.

Trump's demeaning comments about his perceived enemies come at a time when polls show continued reluctance among many women to support his candidacy – a gender gap that favors Harris by more than double digits in most polls nationwide. The early voting rate for women has so far been significantly higher than for men.

Harris tried to emphasize this in the closing stages of the race.

She told NBC News in an exclusive interview Thursday that Trump's comments this week about protecting women whether they “like it or not” were another sign of how he “devalues” women.

Trump delivered the sharp remarks in central Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and has the largest population in Arizona. In 2020, voter defections from Trump driven by independents, women and suburban voters led the county to vote against the Republican presidential candidate for the first time in decades, costing Trump Arizona's 11 electoral votes.

Trump also announced a stunning and momentous proposal on stage: He would turn to Elon Musk to help make massive cuts to the federal budget, perhaps even by a third of its current annual spending levels. Neither Trump nor Musk have provided specific details about which programs or even agencies they would eliminate to make such a staggering cut.

“He thinks he can save $2 trillion – in which case we don't have a deficit,” Trump said. “Two trillion dollars a year, by the way!”

After two earlier campaign rallies that day – in New Mexico and Nevada – Trump concluded his final stop late into the Western night with demeaning insults and semi-tangential comments that lasted several minutes.

Before Trump took the stage, Carlson gave a speech about masculinity in which he mocked second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Gov. Tim Walz, whom he called “the scary guy who follows (Harris) on the campaign trail.”

In the final days of his third presidential campaign, Trump has taken to the streets without his former Republican rivals such as the former representative. Nikki Haley, Governor Ron DeSantis or Senator Tim Scott. He also hasn't aligned himself with Georgia's popular GOP governor, Brian Kemp.

Instead, Trump has chosen to follow in the footsteps of provocative figures like Charlie Kirk, who said this week that women who secretly vote for Harris in the election would “undermine their husbands,” and Carlson, who was fired from Fox News .