--- title: "Trump Invokes Violent Rhetoric Against Cheney, Drawing Blowback" description: "Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that one of his most vociferous critics, Liz Cheney, would be less of a “war hawk” if she experienced combat conditions herself — employing violent imagery that the former Republican congresswoman cast as a threat, creating the latest flash point in a race with Vice President Kamala Harris." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "Newsdeck" author: "Bloomberg" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/bloomberg/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-11-01-trump-invokes-violent-rhetoric-against-cheney-drawing-blowback/" published: "2024-11-01T17:55:25" updated: "2024-11-01T17:55:27" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 1573 --- # Trump Invokes Violent Rhetoric Against Cheney, Drawing Blowback > Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that one of his most vociferous critics, Liz Cheney, would be less of a “war hawk” if she experienced combat conditions herself — employing violent imagery that the former Republican congresswoman cast as a threat, creating the latest flash point in a race with Vice President Kamala Harris. By Bloomberg · Published 1 November 2024, 19:55 SAST · Updated 1 November 2024, 19:55 SAST ## Key points - In a fiery exchange with Tucker Carlson, Trump unleashed a barrage of insults at Liz Cheney, dubbing her a "radical war hawk" and suggesting she might rethink her foreign policy if faced with a firing squad—because nothing says "diplomacy" quite like a graphic battlefield metaphor. - Trump criticizes Liz Cheney's foreign policy, labeling her a "radical war hawk" eager for conflict. - Cheney fires back, accusing Trump of dictatorial threats against dissenters and warning against his unstable leadership. - Trump's rhetoric, including graphic battlefield imagery, faces backlash as critics label it "dangerous" and "violent." - With the election nearing, Biden aims to bolster Harris in Pennsylvania, while navigating his own recent gaffe regarding Trump supporters. ## Content During a discussion with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, the former president assailed Cheney — a Republican who has endorsed Harris — over her foreign policy views, accusing her of being eager to send Americans into war without understanding the consequences. Trump called Cheney “radical” and asked how she would feel with guns trained on her. The comments drew instant blowback. Cheney in a [post on X](https://x.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1852292100844621974) Friday, responded, writing “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.” *Donald Trump* Harris spokesman Ian Sams on MSNBC’s *Morning Joe* on Friday said the former president’s remark highlighted the choice before voters, calling it “dangerous, violent rhetoric.” In the final stretch of the election, Trump’s rhetoric has increasingly come under scrutiny, particularly his comments for those who have opposed him politically. Speaking in the context of war, Trump used graphic language to paint the picture of Cheney on a battlefield. “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said. Trump’s campaign criticized how his remarks have been cast in a statement. “The press has been disgracefully covering these remarks by saying that President Trump suggested that Liz Cheney should be put in front of a ‘firing squad,’” the campaign said in a statement. “Are these reporters malicious or dumb? President Trump was clearly describing a combat zone.” Trump has a penchant for going off script at rallies and impromptu remarks, a tendency that was on full display Thursday night during his conversation with Carlson — an event which saw the former president at times make profane remarks, lob insults at political rivals and disenchanted former aides. The language has endeared the former president to much of his base, but recent events have also highlighted the danger of the approach for the candidate, who has made a point of telling audiences that his advisers have urged him to tamp down his rhetoric and that he has refused. On Wednesday night, Trump delivered a line he said his aides had cautioned against, saying that he was going to “protect” women whether they “like it or not,” which led critics, noting that Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, to pounce. Harris called the remark “offensive.” Read more: [There’s an Election Tuesday. Here’s How to Catch Up On The News](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-01/2024-election-must-read-news-before-us-votes-on-trump-vs-harris-list) That followed a firestorm over a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Oct. 27 who denigrated Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Harris’ own efforts to capitalize on that were undercut when President Joe Biden appeared to refer to Trump’s supporters as “garbage,” in response, a gaffe from which Harris has distanced herself. On Thursday, a separate controversy saw Trump spar with billionaire investor Mark Cuban, one of Harris’ most high-profile surrogates. Cuban, during an appearance on ABC’s *The View,* said of Trump that “you never see him around strong, intelligent women.” The comment drew fierce criticism from female Trump allies and the former president, who wrote on X that he surrounds himself “with the strongest of women — With the understanding that ALL women are great, whether strong or not strong.” Cuban later sought to clarify his remarks, saying the context was in regards to why former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has endorsed Trump, was not active in his campaign. With only four days to Election Day, here’s the latest on the presidential race: *Joe Biden* ### Biden in Pennsylvania Fresh off his own recent gaffe, Biden will head to Pennsylvania to tout his administration’s support for unions, aiming to bolster Harris in a crucial swing state. The president will announce that his administration has protected more than 1.2 million pensions through the American Rescue Plan’s Butch Lewis Act, according to the White House. Biden’s own gaffe, where he appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage” undercut Harris’ own efforts to put pressure on Trump over the off-color remarks by a comedian at a recent rally and threatened to damage her push to broaden her electoral appeal by courting independents and disaffected Republicans. The White House has sought to limit the damage by challenging the characterization of Biden’s remarks, with a transcript that has the president saying “supporter’s” instead of “supporters” to argue that he was focusing his “garbage” attack on the comedian. The Associated Press late Thursday reported that White House press officials had altered the transcript, drawing criticism from the head of the stenographers’ office, who in an email characterized it as a “breach of protocol.” That report threatens to drag out the controversy over Biden’s remarks. Pennsylvania is the most populous of the battlegrounds that will determine the election outcome with 19 electoral votes, making it a top target for both candidates, particularly with polls showing a close race there with Trump ahead by just three-tenths of a percentage point in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Biden regularly calls himself the most pro-union president in US history, but broad frustration among voters with his economic record has helped Trump make inroads with members of organized labor. Harris has the support of most major unions and has ramped up her outreach to rank-and-file workers. *Attendees hold placards during a campaign event for Kamala Harris in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sept. 20.* ### Wisconsin Rallies Harris will have her own union-focused event in Wisconsin as both she and Trump hold dueling campaign stops in the swing state. The vice president will stop at a union hall in Janesville as she competes with her Republican rival to court blue-collar workers in the state, vowing to bring manufacturing and high-paying jobs and lower the high costs buffeting households. The vice president has two more events in the state on Friday, culminating in a rally in the Milwaukee-area with A-list celebrities, the latest rally to draw on star power to help mobilize voters. She’ll be joined at the event by rapper and songwriter Cardi B, who will encourage early voting. Musical guests GloRilla, Flo Milli, MC Lyte, The Isley Brothers, and DJ Gemini Gilly are set to perform. Trump will also hold a rally Friday evening in Wisconsin, returning to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where he formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination this summer. Wisconsin along with Pennsylvania and Michigan comprises the Democratic Blue Wall — one of Harris’ clearest paths to victory. ### Trump in Michigan The Republican presidential nominee will campaign in another Blue Wall state on Friday — Michigan. Trump is expected to visit Dearborn, the nation’s largest Arab-majority city, stopping at a local business, according to the AP. Trump is seeking to exploit Democratic divisions over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas with Arab- and Muslim-Americans. Harris has expressed more sympathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians and urged a cease-fire that would end hostilities and free hostages, but has also offered support for Israel. Her rallies are regularly interrupted by pro-Palestinian activists. Read more: [Trump’s Momentum With Muslims Threatens Harris’ Lead in Michigan](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-30/trump-s-momentum-with-muslims-threatens-harris-lead-in-michigan) Michigan boasts a sizable number of Arab American voters in a state where there are more than 300,000 people of Middle Eastern or North African descent — a bloc that offers to tip a key battleground in a razor-sharp election. Trump in recent days has won the endorsements of Bill Bazzi, the first Muslim and Arab American mayor of Dearborn Heights and a Detroit-area imam. *Workers picket outside the Boeing Co. manufacturing facility during a strike in Renton, Washington, US, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. Boeing Co. factory workers walked off the job for the first time in 16 years, halting manufacturing across the planemaker's Seattle hub after members of its largest union voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract offer and go on strike. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg* ### Hiring Slowdown Harris avoided a potentially major last-minute liability on Friday with a US jobs report that was positive — but only narrowly. US hiring advanced at its slowest pace since 2020 in October with nonfarm payrolls increasing by only 12,000 last month in a report that offers voters a final report card on the US economy ahead of Election Day in a presidential contest in which jobs and wages are paramount issues. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said back-to-back hurricanes that battered the US southeast and a major strike at Boeing Co. likely affected payroll numbers — factors which Biden also pointed to in a statement on the report. Read More: [US Payrolls Increase by Just 12,000, Hit by Storms and Strikes](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-01/us-payrolls-increase-by-just-12-000-hit-by-storms-and-strikes) “The devastation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and new strike activity, lowered job growth. Job growth is expected to rebound in November as our hurricane recovery and rebuilding efforts continue,” Biden said in a statement Friday. Data from earlier in the week showed the US economy expanded at a robust pace in the third quarter as household purchases accelerated ahead of the election. Despite the positive numbers the Biden-Harris administration has struggled to translate positive economic data into gains with voters. Polls show that voters trust Trump more than Harris to handle the economy, sentiment fueled by high prices that have strained households budgets and worries about job growth and economic mobility.