Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is the target of an imagined death by firing squad in the latest vitriolic soundbite from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who said of Cheney: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Trump didn’t explicitly explain his “nine barrels,” but Democratic activist Scott Dworkin (1M followers on X) named the scenario Trump described, saying: “Trump is threatening Liz Cheney with firing squads.”
Trump is threatening Liz Cheney with firing squads and y’all in corporate media are covering garbage propaganda. Do your damn jobs.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 1, 2024
Trump laid down his Cheney threat a day after another performance, also criticized by Democrats and others, where he vowed to “protect women” even if they “didn’t want him to.”
Critics are placing the two statements together in social media posts — Trump gleefully imagining rifles “trained on” Cheney’s face and Trump vowing to protect women — and begging swing state voters to see hypocrisy.
Cheney responded to Trump’s scenario, characterizing his salvo as a “death threat.” But Trump isn’t Cheney’s only target as she continues to campaign for Democrat Kamala Harris and occupy the (dangerous) role as the most outspoken, highest profile Republican in opposition to Trump.
Cheney is also aiming at Trump surrogates and boosters, especially when they delve into what Cheney and others see as outright misogyny.
When a new Harris-supporting ad voiced by Hollywood star Julia Roberts drew the ire of rightwing extremists for encouraging women to make their own decisions in the voting booth, MAGA adherent and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk found it “nauseating.” Kirk took issue with Roberts telling women their vote is their “secret.”
Kirk railed against this privacy, implying that any wife who voted differently from her husband was essentially an ungrateful rebel stepping out of line and representing “the embodiment of the downfall of the American family.”
Cheney dispatched Kirk’s furor with an unflattering characterization of the man himself, coupled with a call-to-arms for women willing to exercise their electoral autonomy. “Listen to this twit make Donald Trump’s closing argument,” Cheney wrote. “Women, you know what to do.” For those who aren’t sure, the hashtag #votekamala followed.
Listen to this twit make Donald Trump’s closing argument. Women, you know what to do. #VoteKamala
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) October 31, 2024
[NOTE: Roberts own path toward autonomy, as represented by her characters, makes her a pertinent choice for the ad. The actress broke out big in Hollywood playing a prostitute in the smash hit Pretty Woman, perhaps historically the most gendered, least autonomous profession of all, but later graduated into roles like that of the feminist hero Erin Brockovich, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.]