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Trump remark that Liz Cheney might not be a 'war hawk' if she had guns 'trained on her face' being investigated by Arizona AG

Katie MatherReporter
Updated
5 min read
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Arizona's top prosecutor is investigating comments former President Donald Trump made on Thursday night about former Rep. Liz Cheney. Trump called Cheney a "radical war hawk" for her stance on foreign policy — and suggested the Republican wouldn’t be willing to send troops into battle if she faced a firing squad herself.

Attorney General Kris Mayes said Friday she was going to see if what Trump said "qualifies as a death threat under Arizona's laws."

Speaking at a rally in Arizona alongside former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked whether it was weird to see Cheney campaign against him. Trump responded that Cheney was a “deranged person” who disagreed with him because “she always wanted to go to war with people” and fought against Trump’s decision to pull troops from Syria and Iraq.

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

Later in the day, at a rally in Michigan, a state with a large Muslim population, Trump called Cheney a "Muslim-hating warmonger." He also again invited his audience to imagine guns being pointed at Cheney, saying, "If you gave Liz Cheney a gun and put her into battle facing the other side with guns pointing at her, she wouldn't have the courage or the strength or the stamina to even look the enemy in the eye."

Cheney, a fierce critic of Trump who has campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris, likened Trump’s earlier remarks to a death threat.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney responded on 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.”

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Harris told reporters on Friday that she had not had a chance to personally speak to Cheney since Trump's comments were made.

"I know Liz Cheney well enough to know she is tough, she is incredibly courageous and has shown herself to be a true patriot," Harris said. "We see this kind of rhetoric that is violent in nature where we see this kind of spirit coming from Donald Trump that is so laden with the desire for revenge and retribution."

Cheney, a lifelong Republican and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has endorsed Harris for president and has accompanied the Democratic nominee to several swing-state rallies. Her father also announced in September that he would be voting for Harris.

Who is Liz Cheney, and what’s her relationship to the Republican Party?

Cheney represented Wyoming’s congressional district from 2017 to 2023 and was the chair of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021, where she served as Congress’s highest-ranking Republican woman. She was ousted from her position after she criticized Trump.

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When her father was vice president to former President George W. Bush, she held several positions in the State Department.

Cheney voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020 as they both aligned on being against issues like Obamacare, environmental regulation and gun control. But after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Cheney told NPR, “There’s simply no defense, no excuse for putting that power back in the hands of Donald Trump, who attempted to seize power and stay in office already one illegally.” She later voted to impeach him.

“Look, I was never going to support Joe Biden, and I do regret the vote,” Cheney said in March 2021. “I will do everything I can to make sure [Trump is] not the nominee.”

Trump and Cheney’s conflict goes back years

Trump and Cheney have butted heads for a while, but it crescendoed when Cheney took a seat on the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Later that year, Trump said in a speech, “The Liz Cheneys of the world, we got to get rid of them.”

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In March, Trump suggested that Cheney and other members of the committee should be jailed.

Cheney on the campaign trail with Harris

Cheney’s role with the Harris campaign is to reach undecided voters and conservative voters — especially women — who do not support Trump.

“It’s not about party; it’s about right and wrong,” Cheney told a crowd in Michigan. “I certainly have many Republicans who will say to me, ‘I can’t be public.’ They do worry about a whole range of things, including violence, but they’ll do the right thing. And I would just remind people, if you’re at all concerned, you can vote [with] your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody.”

Cheney joined Harris for several battleground state stops, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. A Washington Post-Schar School Deciders poll conducted Sept. 30 to Oct. 15 found that 26% of voters in those states were still undecided.

“If people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say, ‘I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am,’” Cheney said at the Michigan campaign stop. “I understand the most conservative value there is: to defend the Constitution.”

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