Former US lawmaker Liz Cheney said on Friday Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump's violent comment suggesting she should face a firing squad for her foreign policy stance showed he could not be entrusted with the White House and would target his enemies in office.
Former US president Trump, who faces Democratic US vice president Kamala Harris in Tuesday's election, called Ms Cheney on Thursday "a very dumb individual" and a "war hawk," noting that she and her father, former Republican vice president Dick Cheney, refused to back his third presidential run.
"She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a 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 to her face," Mr Trump told supporters at a campaign event with former Fox News television host Tucker Carlson in Arizona.
Mr Trump has repeatedly vowed to investigate or prosecute his political rivals, including Ms Cheney, as well as election workers, journalists and left-wing Americans, among others, and has said the military could be used against what he calls "radical left lunatics" if there is unrest on election day.
One of the most high-profile Republicans to turn against Mr Trump, Ms Cheney has endorsed Ms Harris in the November 5th contest, saying she crossed party lines to put the country before politics and calling Mr Trump a "danger".
"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," Ms Cheney responded in a post on X on Friday, adding "#Womenwillnotbesilenced."
Representatives for Mr Trump's campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.
Once one of the party's top leaders in the US House of Representatives, Ms Cheney lost her seat in Congress after backing Mr Trump's second impeachment for his role in his supporters' January 6th, 2021 storming of the US Capitol and then helping to lead the investigation into the attack.
She has since campaigned with Ms Harris, who must win over Republicans and independents — particularly in seven key US swing states — in order to win.
Democrats largely vilified Dick Cheney for his bullish defence of the Iraq War under former Republican president George W Bush but warmly embraced him at a congressional commemoration one year after the January 6th attack. Mr Bush does not plan to make an endorsement in the race.
