Trump campaign attacks coverage of Cheney 'war hawk' remarks

Former President Trump's campaign is attacking media coverage of his remarks Thursday night about former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who he called a "radical war hawk," and asked if she'd feel differently "when the guns are trained on her face."

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said of Cheney during a campaign event in Arizona, speaking with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine-barrel 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, we’ll, let’s send — let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”

Cheney responded in an X post Friday morning saying, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death."

Facing backlash to the comments, the Trump campaign went on the attack.

"President Donald Trump explained Thursday night that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them with no regard for the lives lost," the campaign said in a statement on its website on Friday.

"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,'" it said. "Are these reporters malicious or dumb? President Trump was clearly describing a combat zone."

"Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris, if elected, would continue to plunge the U.S. deeper into war leading to World War 3 and allow innocent men and women to die in that conflict," it added.

Cheney has become a leading GOP Trump critic, making campaign stops with Vice President Harris ahead of next week's election, urging fellow Republicans to consider voting for Harris.