Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump continue to hold dueling swing-state rallies — both are in Milwaukee tonight — and to spar over a series of controversies involving escalating campaign rhetoric and questionable, disturbing or downright dangerous language. The latest: Another example of startling comments by Trump about his political opponents.
In an appearance Thursday night with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump used violent language in criticizing former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who has been campaigning for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. “She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said. “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. You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”
Harris told reporters those comments show Trump is unfit for office. “This must be disqualifying,” she told reporters. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president. Representative Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above party. Trump is increasingly, however, someone who considers his political opponents the enemy, is permanently out for revenge and is increasingly unstable and unhinged. His enemies list has grown longer, his rhetoric has grown more extreme and he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.”
Cheney also responded Friday in a social media post: “This is how dictators destroy free nations,” she wrote. “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.”
Trump defended his comments and insisted that he simply meant that Cheney was all too ready to send Americans to war but would feel differently if she had to be in combat herself.
“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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “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!”
Why it matters: The menacing imagery Trump used may not have actually been calling for Cheney to face a firing squad, as some Democrats claimed, but it again raised alarm among his critics, reinforcing the idea that he is fixated on opponents who he has called “enemies from within.” The language gave the Harris campaign an opening to control another late-stage news cycle and hammer Trump as being obsessed with vengeance.
With just four days to go before voting ends, the campaigns have been lurching from one controversy over campaign comments to another. Trump’s dark language may — or may not — sway voters who have yet to decide who they will support, but the Harris camp reportedly feels that late deciders have been breaking their way by a double-digit margin. But they are reportedly also preparing for Trump to challenge the results of the election and claim the voting was rigged, particularly in Pennsylvania.
