Liz Cheney has responded to Donald Trump’s statement that guns should be fired at her, describing him as a “cruel, unstable man.”
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Cheney, the former Republican Wyoming congresswoman, said: “This is how dictators destroy free nations.
“We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Trump intensified his criticism of Cheney late on Thursday, labeling her a “war hawk” and questioning her commitment to sending troops into combat.
Speaking to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, he said: “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.”
He also suggested that if it were up to Cheney, the U.S. would be involved in conflicts across multiple countries. “If it were up to her, we’d be in 50 different countries,” Trump claimed.
Trump framed the discussion as a critique of politicians who advocate for military intervention from the safety of Washington, D.C.
He added: “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.”
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign for comment outside of regular working hours.
Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney speaking in Wisconsin in October. She has described Donald Trump as a “vindictive, cruel, unstable man.”
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
In response to backlash to Trump’s comments, his campaign said the former president was criticizing Cheney’s willingness to send American troops into combat while not having served in the military herself.
Cheney has endorsed Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris in the presidential election, and has appeared with the Democratic nominee at three events in battleground states in recent weeks.
She has also previously revealed that her father, the former Vice President Dick Cheney, would also be voting for Harris in November.
In a statement released in September, the former vice president said: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”
The former congresswoman became one of Trump’s fiercest critics following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, blaming him for inciting the violence.
She was one of only two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot and supported impeaching Trump over it.
Cheney was elected as Wyoming’s representative in 2016, but she lost the Republican primary in 2022 to a pro-Trump candidate. She had run on a platform focused on opposing Trump.
