Trump has threatened me with death, says Liz Cheney

Former president criticised after saying ‘war hawk’ should be ‘standing there with nine barrels shooting at her’

Liz Cheney has accused Donald Trump of threatening her with “death” amid a row over the former president’s description of guns being pointed at her.
On Thursday, Trump called Ms Cheney a “radical war hawk”, and suggested she might not be as willing to send US troops to fight abroad if she had “nine barrels shooting at her”.
Ms Cheney, who is the daughter of former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney, is backing Kamala Harris and has been one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics.
“Let’s put her with the 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,” Trump told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign event in Arizona.
Trump’s language was seized upon by critics, including Ms Cheney, herself.
In a post on X, she responded:
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. #Womenwillnotbesilenced #VoteKamala https://t.co/URH5s929Sa
Ian Sams, a Democrat spokesman, said on MSNBC: “Donald Trump is so all-consumed by his grievances, the people who he disagrees with and who he sees as opposing him politically, he treats as enemies.
“You have Donald Trump who is talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have vice president Harris talking about sending one to her cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”
Following criticism of the strong language, Trump later clarified his remarks.
He said: “All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a war hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself.
“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!’
“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!”
On Friday, Arizona’s top prosecutor confirmed she was investigating whether Trump’s comments about Ms Cheney violated state law.“I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analysing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Kris Mayes, the Democratic attorney general, told local news.“I’m not prepared now to say whether it was or it wasn’t [a crime], but it is not helpful as we prepare for our election and as we try to make sure that we keep the peace at our polling places and in our state,” she said.
Ms Mayes explained it was not yet clear whether Trump’s comment amounted to protected free speech or a criminal threat.“That’s the question, whether it did cross the line. It’s deeply troubling,” she said.