After ex-President Donald Trump suggested former Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney should have "guns trained on her face," Ian Sams, the senior spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, laid out the contrast between their White House bids.
During a campaign rally in Arizona on Thursday night, Trump criticized Cheney as a “war hawk” and suggested she “should be fired upon,” expressing fury toward one of his most vocal critics within the party.
Trump, who also called Cheney “very dumb,” a “stupid person” and “the moron,” said:
“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.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Shortly afterward, Sams responded with the following scathing remarks that highlight the key differences between Harris's plans and Trump's grievances:
"Trump is so all-consumed by his grievances. The people whom he disagrees with and who he sees as opposing him politically he treats as enemies. He spent the last month talking about 'the enemy from within' the United States and now he's going after Liz Cheney with this dangerous, violent rhetoric."
"Think about the contrast between these two candidates. You have Donald Trump, who's talking 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: You have one candidate who's extending an arm and saying, 'We may not agree on everything, that's okay. I may make mistakes, you may not like me on every issue, that's okay, but we have to turn the page on this division and this anger and frankly the instability we see from Donald Trump if we ever want to move forward as a country, if we ever want to get anything done that actually matters for your life."
"He's going to sit in the Oval Office stewing over his enemies list, over people he sees as his political opponents, on his enemies, and she's going to sit in the Oval Office and actually focus on a to-do list of priorities for the American people: lowering costs, protecting reproductive freedom."
"These are the things that she's talked about over and over during her campaign."
Noting that polls show Trump's lead on the economy in vital swing states has "been erased," Sams stressed that people are "actually hearing from" Harris and responding well to her proposals.
He added:
"All Donald Trump does is attack his enemies, attack his opponents, talk about his own problems. We think that's actually resonating with voters. We think that's contributing to the fact that undecided swing voters in this race are breaking her way."
"They are seeing, regardless of the misinformation and disinformation being churned out on the right—undecided voters, independent voters, even some Republican voters who aren't very comfortable with Donald Trump—they are seeing this rhetoric. They are seeing what happened at Madison Square Garden."
"It is turning them off and it's bringing them closer and closer to supporting Vice President Harris if not already casting their vote for Vice President Harris."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many concurred while condemning Trump's rhetoric.
This isn't the first time Trump hasn't threatened Cheney.
Earlier this year, Cheney criticized Trump after he shared an image accusing her of treason and calling for "televised military tribunals."
His reasons for sharing the meme are clear considering Cheney angered her own party and was ousted from her leadership position in the House of Representatives after she pushed back against Trump's falsehoods about the integrity of the 2020 election.
Cheney—who recently endorsed and has been campaigning with Harris—even served as Vice Chair of the House Select Committee on January 6, which later resulted in her losing her primary to MAGA extremist Harriet Hageman, whom Trump endorsed.
Notably, Trump issued a statement more than three months after President Joe Biden took office calling Biden's victory "the big lie."
Cheney responded shortly afterward with a statement of her own affirming the election "was not stolen," adding anyone who says it was is "turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system."
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy long denied the effort to remove Cheney from her position as the House's third-ranking Republican was in any way related to her vote to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection against Congress.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
