Liz Cheney says Trump comments were akin to death threat

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) denounced former President Trump for his recent comments branding her a "war hawk" and using language akin to a death threat, equating the rhetoric to that of a dictator.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney, who has been a vocal critic of the former president, said Friday in a post on the social platform X. “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 added.

Her response comes a day after Trump criticized her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, for endorsing Vice President Harris, during a fireside chat with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona.

“And I don't blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb,” Trump said Thursday.

“She's a radical war hawk," he continued, echoing comments he's made before. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine-barrel shooting at her, OK. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

Liz Cheney, the former No. 3 House Republican, said in early September she would vote for Harris. Since then, she has appeared on the campaign trail with the vice president, looking to turn out some conservatives who feel disaffected with the GOP and Trump.

The former president has also been critical of Liz Cheney, who sat on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and voted to impeach him. Trump endorsed her opponent in the 2022 House primary, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who ended up winning by a wide margin.

Trump also attacked her last week during a campaign stop in Michigan, where he invoked her father's support for the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq — likely an effort to stave off Arab American and Muslim voters away from Harris in the Great Lakes State.

“Kamala is campaigning with Muslim-hating warmonger, Liz Cheney, who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet," Trump said at the time in Novi, Mich. "And let me tell you the Muslims of our country, they see it, and they know it."

“Her father was responsible for invading the Middle East, killing millions of Arabs — millions — and this is the one that Kamala is campaigning with,” he added.

The Hill has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment.