MADISON, Wisconsin: Kamala Harris said Friday it was \u201cdisqualifying\u201d for Donald Trump to say former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the former president\u2019s most prominent Republican critics, should have rifles \u201cshooting at her\u201d to see how she feels about sending troops to fight.
\nThe Democratic vice president has campaigned extensively with Cheney, especially in the \u201cblue wall\u201d battleground states that make up her strongest path to victory on Tuesday, while Trump has been going after the former Wyoming congresswoman and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, over the Iraq war and US military interventions abroad.
\nSpeaking to reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, Harris asked voters to consider who they\u2019d prefer sitting in the Oval Office, driving the message she\u2019s been emphasizing in the campaign\u2019s closing week. Harris called Cheney \u201ca true patriot\u201d and said Trump \u201chas increased his violent rhetoric.\u201d
\n\u201cHis enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme,\u201d Harris said. \u201cAnd he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.\u201d
\nTrump and his allies say his comments are being misconstrued. They say he was arguing that Cheney is a \u201cwar hawk\u201d but would be less supportive of using the military if she had to fight in wars herself.
\nHe doubled down Friday, repeating the same imagery that drove the backlash.
\n\u201cIf you gave Liz Cheney a gun and put her into battle, facing the other side with the guns pointing at her, she wouldn\u2019t have the courage and the strength or the stamina to even look the enemy in the eye,\u201d Trump said during a rally in Warren, Michigan.
\nThe Republican presidential candidate has been using increasingly threatening rhetoric against his adversaries and talked of \u201cenemies from within\u201d undermining the country. Some of his former senior aides and Harris have labeled him a fascist in response.
\nCheney, who broke with Trump after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, on Friday called the former president a \u201ccruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.\u201d
\nTrump has ramped up his critiques of the Cheneys in swing state Michigan, where he is competing with Harris for the votes of Arab Americans opposed to US backing of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza after Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack and its subsequent invasion of Lebanon.
\nAt an event late Thursday in Arizona with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked whether it was strange to see Cheney campaign against him. The former congresswoman has vocally opposed Trump since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and endorsed Harris, joining the vice president at recent stops as they try to win over Republicans disaffected with Trump.
\nTrump called Cheney \u201ca deranged person\u201d and added: \u201cBut the reason she couldn\u2019t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. If it were up to her we\u2019d be in 50 different countries.\u201d
\nThe former president continued: \u201cShe\u2019s a radical war hawk. Let\u2019s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let\u2019s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.
\n\u201cYou know they\u2019re all war hawks when they\u2019re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well, let\u2019s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,\u201d Trump said.
\nCheney responded Friday in a post on X: \u201cThis 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.\u201d
\nOne prominent Trump critic, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, argued the former president\u2019s comment had been taken out of context and that Trump was \u201cNOT calling for Liz Cheney to be executed in front of a firing line.\u201d
\n\u201cIn Trump\u2019s typically stupid, ugly fashion, he\u2019s trying to make a point about Cheney\u2019s stance on war,\u201d Walsh said on X.
\nIan Sams, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, suggested that Trump was \u201ctalking 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.\u201d
\nTrump said he was making a point about Cheney\u2019s foreign policy record.
\n\u201cShe wanted to … go to war with everybody because she, like Kamala, is a stupid person,\u201d Trump said of Cheney in Michigan. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for her to say she wants to start wars from the comfort of her nice home.\u201d
\nEarlier, during a stop at a restaurant in nearby Dearborn, he called Cheney a \u201ccoward\u201d and said \u201cshe\u2019d be the first one to chicken out\u201d if put on a battlefield. Women were not allowed to serve in direct combat roles until 2013, when Cheney was 47.
\nHis spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said his comments were being taken out of context, calling the controversy \u201cthe latest fake media outrage.\u201d
\nThroughout his campaign, Trump has been fixated on the Americans he believes have wronged or betrayed him. He has portrayed them as worse than the United States\u2019 foreign adversaries, referring to them as \u201cenemies from within.\u201d
\nHe\u2019s threatened to use the federal government, including the military, to go after them. And he has repeatedly threatened \u201clong term prison sentences\u201d for those \u201cinvolved in unscrupulous behavior\u201d this election, including political operatives, donors and elected officials.
\nHe said people he labeled as \u201cthe enemy from within\u201d should be \u201cvery easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.\u201d
\nSome of Trump\u2019s supporters have said his talk of vengeance is either justified or hyperbole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADISON, Wisconsin: Kamala Harris said Friday it was \u201cdisqualifying\u201d for Donald Trump to say former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the former president\u2019s most prominent Republican critics, should have rifles \u201cshooting at her\u201d to see how she feels about sending troops to fight. The Democratic vice president has campaigned extensively with Cheney, especially in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-441158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n