Donald Trump

Jacob Sullum | 11.1.2024 3:25 PM

It is no secret that Donald Trump hates former Rep. Liz Cheney (R–Wyo.), a leading critic of the former president who joined nine other Republicans in supporting his second impeachment, served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the 2021 Capitol riot, and is now campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris. But contrary to what you may have heard, Trump did not say Cheney "should be fired upon" (as CNN reported), recommend "executing her" (as CNN anchor Sara Sidner claimed), suggest that she "go before a firing squad" (as The Atlantic's David Graham averred), or make "a dark and ominous threat" of "death" against her (as The New Republic's Hafiz Rashid asserted).

Here is what Trump actually said about Cheney during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign event in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday night: "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 on her face." Referring to politicians who are inclined to favor U.S. military interventions, Trump added: "You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, 'Oh, gee, well, let's send, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.'"

Trump's remarks about Cheney reflected a standard complaint about armchair interventionists: that they are insulated from the consequences of the wars they support and do not give adequate consideration to the human costs. Although he may have expressed that point in especially vivid terms, he did not argue that Cheney deserved to be shot or........

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