WASHINGTON — It’s three and a half months since Donald Trump was left bleeding after an attempted assassination that almost succeeded. Now, in his latest violent rhetorical outburst, he suggested one of his opponents should be made to face guns “shooting at her.”
Liz Cheney, a former Republican lawmaker, is backing Trump’s rival Kamala Harris for the U.S. presidency in a contest that is on a knife edge with just four days to go. At a rally in the swing state of Arizona on Thursday, Trump described Cheney as “a very dumb individual.”
He said she wanted to keep American troops fighting foreign wars in places like Iraq and Syria, while he had acted to cut back U.S. military commitments. “If it were up to her, we’d be in 50 different countries,” Trump said. “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.”
Cheney hit back. “This is how dictators destroy free nations,” said the former member of Congress, who is the daughter of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney. “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,” she said.
Cheney has been backing the Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Harris, for the presidency because she cannot stand her own side’s choice for the White House.
But attacking the outlandish remarks of your opponent runs the risk of amplifying them. In her case, Cheney even reposted the video of Trump’s interview on social media platform X, presumably in an effort to motivate more voters to oppose him and go out to vote for Harris.
The episode illustrates how the Nov. 5 election is not so much a battle of contrasting ideas for the future of America but a referendum on one man.
Harris’s entire campaign has emphasized how Trump must not be entrusted with the White House again after his role in the riot that saw gangs of his supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She has described him as a “fascist” and a threat to democracy.
The Trump campaign’s increasingly inflammatory rhetoric has dominated the final full week of campaigning. At a Trump rally in New York last Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe provoked condemnation from Republicans and Democrats after describing Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory — as a “floating island of garbage.” The backlash began immediately. Critics attacked the “racist” joke and urged Puerto Rican voters — who could be vital in key swing states — to back Harris.
A few days later Joe Biden himself described Trump’s supporters as “garbage,” prompting the Harris campaign to distance the Democratic candidate from the erratic president.
The election is officially too close to call. Polls suggest Trump and Harris are effectively tied in swing states that are expected to decide the election. In the context of such a tight race, gaffes in the fraught final days of campaigning could prove costly.
Andrew Howard contributed reporting.
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