Cheney blasts Trump for 'war hawk comment': 'This is how dictators destroy free nations'

WASHINGTON - Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney criticized former President Donald Trump on X, formerly Twitter, after he called her a “war hawk” and said that guns should be “trained on her face.”

Trump made the comments during an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson at an event in Glendale, Arizona. He claimed that she wanted to keep American troops in Syria and Iraq.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?,” he said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

Cheney hit back on X.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. 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,” Cheney wrote on the platform with the hashtags #Womenwillnotbesilenced and #VoteKamala.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later wrote on X that Trump's words are being taken "out of context."

"President Trump was CLEARLY explaining that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves," she wrote.

Trump’s disparaging rhetoric about his political opponents has increased with the Nov. 5 general election approaching. The Cheney comments are the latest. He’s previously labeled his opponents “garbage," “scum," and "enemy from within."

Cheney, one of Trump’s most vocal critics, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and has been campaigning with her in recent weeks.

She was previously the vice chair of the now-dissolved House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and has condemned the former president’s actions on that day.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liz Cheney blasts Trump for 'war hawk comment'