Walz calls Trump's Cheney rifle comments 'sickening but not surprising'

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) condemned former President Trump's remarks describing former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as having guns “trained on her face,” saying the comments were "sickening" and "un-American," but "not surprising."

"Well, it's sickening but not surprising. This is exactly what he does... And so when I hear it, yeah, it's sickening, it's un-American, but it also just inspires me, and I hope it does a whole bunch of your listeners. This is why they need to go vote," Walz told Zerlina Maxwell in an interview Friday on SiriusXM.

"This is why we need to put an end to this. This is why we need to get that new way forward that the vice president keeps talking about that is truly American. So it just inspires me to go work more," Walz added, calling it "unacceptable behavior."

Walz's response comes after Trump made the comments about Cheney during a fireside chat with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona on Thursday. Trump had also criticized her foreign policy and her and former Vice President Dick Cheney's endorsement of Vice President Harris.

Trump has spurred backlash from his rifle comments, as Arizona’s attorney general's office said it is investigating Trump’s remarks as a death threat under state laws, in a statement to The Hill.

Liz Cheney responded to Trump’s remarks in a post on social platform X in which she compared the comments to a death threat.

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

During the interview, Walz also said he doesn't think Trump will accept defeat if he loses the presidential election.

"We have the safeguards in place, as a governor working with the other governors, Democrats and Republicans," Walz said in the interview.

"There's protections in place … And when he does hopefully that'll be about the end of Donald Trump's time on the national stage, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief to not have to be part of his drama again," he added.

The Minnesota governor also called on male voters as they decide which candidate to support.

“Think about the women in your lives you love … their lives are truly at stake," Walz said.

A recent CBS News/YouGov survey revealed that support for Harris and Trump is split by gender, with Harris garnering 55 percent of her support from women, while Trump earns 54 percent of his from men.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the backlash, stating that Trump’s words were taken out of context, The Hill reported.

“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.

In response to a request for comment, the Trump campaigned referred The Hill to a post made Friday by Trump on Truth Social in which the former president attacked the former lawmaker and her father on foreign policy.

"It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, 'No thanks!'" he wrote in the post. "Her father decimated the Middle East, and other places, and got rich by doing so. He’s caused plenty of DEATH, and probably never even gave it a thought. That’s not what we want running our Country!"