Liz Cheney: Trump 'knows what he's doing' with violent rhetoric

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said former President Trump “knows what he’s doing” with violent rhetoric about her on the campaign trail.

“He knows what he’s doing. He knows it’s a threat to intimidate,” Cheney said on ABC’s "The View" on Monday. “Obviously, the intimidation won’t work.”

Cheney’s response comes after Trump made comments describing her as having guns “trained on her face” during an on-stage conversation with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona last week. Trump made the comment while criticizing Cheney over foreign policy.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” 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. You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, we’ll, let’s send — let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”

Cheney is one of the most vocal Republicans against Trump since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and has hit the campaign trail this year to boost Vice President Harris and a handful of congressional Democratic candidates. She referenced Trump’s response to the Jan. 6 attack during her appearance on "The View," comparing Trump to an autocratic leader.

“That level of depravity, he knows he has no defense to that. And he knows that the American people will not entrust again with power anyone who would do something that cruel,” she said. “Because he can't respond to that, he tries to change the subject, he tries to threaten. It's what autocrats do to get their political adversaries to be silent.”

Cheney and Trump have long criticized each other, with the former president going after her role on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot.

After Trump's comments about her last Thursday, Cheney initially responded with a post on the social platform X saying the former president's comments were akin to a death threat.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death,” Cheney wrote.

Harris condemned Trump’s comment, saying the violent rhetoric was “disqualifying.”

“Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” Harris said.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the former president’s words were being taken out of context.

“President Trump is 100% correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves. This is the continuation of the latest fake media outrage days before the election in a blatant attempt to interfere on behalf of Kamala Harris,” Leavitt said.