- Throughout a public dialog in Arizona, Trump described Cheney as “a radical warfare hawk” who “all the time wished to go to warfare with individuals.”
- In that vein, Trump hypothesized a scenario by which Cheney, armed with a rifle, is “standing there with 9 barrels taking pictures at her. OK, let’s have a look at how she feels about it. You already know, when the weapons are skilled on her face …”
- Albeit a probably harmful escalation of violent rhetoric and imagery on Trump’s half, in context his phrases didn’t quantity to an express risk towards Cheney.
Because the 2024 U.S. presidential marketing campaign drew to an in depth in early November, rumors started to flow into on-line that former U.S. president and Republican candidate Donald Trump had known as for the execution of former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming (archived):
This publish on X had amassed 678,800 views and 34,000 likes as of this writing. Another person posted that with these remarks, Trump had violated the phrases of his bail in an ongoing courtroom case (archived):
In the meantime, CNN presenter Kasie Hunt argued on “CNN This Morning” the remarks represented an “escalation of his violent rhetoric” (archived):
The Drudge Report, a traditionally right-wing political weblog that turned on Trump throughout his 2016-2020 administration, claimed the identical factor on its homepage (archived):
(The Drudge Report)
Trump’s verbal goal, Cheney, addressed his feedback in a publish on X (archived):
However the remarks require some context. Cheney was one of the vital distinguished Republicans to oppose Trump, and she or he endorsed his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, for president. Whereas in Congress, she was the vice chairwoman of the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, searching for to make clear Trump’s function within the occasions. She later lost her seat in the House of Representatives.
Trump’s supporters, in the meantime, defended his remarks, saying that his opponents have been taking the outrage too far. For instance, the presenters of the Fox News show “Fox and Friends” argued that every one Trump meant was that it’s simple for individuals to advocate for warfare when they’re secure from fight. “He mentioned — simply to make clear — President Trump was speaking about how Liz Cheney desires to ship American little children to battle in wars regardless of by no means being in a warfare herself,” they mentioned, including: “She is aware of higher.”
Snopes discovered the recording of the conversation Trump had with former Fox Information presenter Tucker Carlson, by which he made the remarks in query. It happened in Glendale, Arizona, on Oct. 31, 2024 — 5 days earlier than Election Day. This is a transcript of what he mentioned about Cheney, together with the context (emphasis ours):
And [former U.S. Vice President Dick] Cheney was so, he mentioned, I actually need to thanks. He mentioned, now, I am so glad that I truly endorsed you. It is wonderful however that you’d do that and I did not communicate to him about it. However then, you already know, go a few years ahead now and I do not blame him for sticking along with his daughter. However his daughter is a really dumb particular person, very dumb. She’s a radical warfare hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels taking pictures at her. OK, let’s have a look at how she feels about it. You already know, when the weapons are skilled on her face, you already know, they’re all warfare hawks once they’re sitting in Washington in a pleasant constructing saying, oh, gee. Effectively, let’s ship, let’s ship 10,000 troops proper into the mouth of the enemy, however she’s a silly particular person. And I used to have, I’ve conferences with lots of people, and she or he all the time wished to go to warfare with individuals.
Whereas his supporters’ protection of his remark was believable, Trump’s detractors, together with Hunt, seen it within the wider context of what they perceived because the rising stridency of his language because the election approached. For instance, on Oct. 13, 2024, he made statements that have been broadly interpreted as a risk to ship the U.S. Military against his political opponents, a degree he doubled down on throughout a city corridor in Georgia two days later.Â
Trump’s remarks about Cheney didn’t quantity to an express risk of violence towards her. Nevertheless, we reiterate that what Trump did do was describe, in express phrases, a hypothetical state of affairs by which Cheney would face the specter of lethal violence from the barrels of 9 weapons “skilled on her face.”
