Several social media posts claim former President Donald Trump called for former Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney to be executed via firing squad.
Trump on Liz 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.” pic.twitter.com/Mtx1fbLtwE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 1, 2024
Verdict: False
At no point in the interview did Trump explicitly call for the execution of Cheney. The former president appeared to suggest hypothetically putting Cheney on the battlefield in a stark criticism of her policy views.
Fact Check:
The former president continued to attack Cheney while on the campaign trail, referring to her as a “disaster,” according to CNN.
Social media posts across X and Facebook claim that Trump, during a sit-down interview, threatened to have Cheney executed via firing squad. The former president seemed to suggest to “put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” along with pointing “guns…on her face.”
Incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the comments, calling Trump’s remarks “extreme” while calling Cheney a “true patriot,” according to The Associated Press.
The claim is false. The original comments came during an on-stage interview with former Fox News host and Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson, when he asked the former president about Cheney “running against [him] with Kamala Harris.”
Trump proceeded to sharply criticize her foreign policy, which he claimed made her “a radical war-hawk.” The former president claimed that “if it were up to her, we’d be in 50 different countries,” before making the comments regarding rifles.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine rifles shooting at her and see how she likes it,” the former president said. He then states that “they’re all war-hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building…but she’s a stupid person.”
At no point in the video does Trump call for a firing squad or explicitly call for Cheney to be executed. Subsequently, a YouTube transcript of the interview shows no mention of the words “firing squad” or “execution.”
The remarks were probed by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on whether the comments constituted a death threat, according to Newsweek. (RELATED: Does A Department Of Defense Directive Authorize Military To Use Lethal Force Against US Citizens?)
This is not the first time Trump’s comments have been taken out of context or misconstrued to mean something completely different. Check Your Fact recently debunked a claim suggesting the former president would move out of the country if he lost the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
DISCLAIMER: Tucker Carlson is the co-founder of The Daily Caller, Inc., which is the parent company of the Check Your Fact website. This article and the website are editorially independent of the Daily Caller.