Liz Cheney hits back at Trump's violent rhetoric: 'This is how dictators destroy free nations'

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is firing back at Donald Trump after the former president darkly suggested Cheney be put in the line of fire as he criticized her as a "war hawk."

"This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death," Cheney posted Friday on X. "We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."

Trump attacked Cheney at an event with Tucker Carlson in battleground Arizona on Thursday night.

"She's a radical war hawk," Trump said of the former Wyoming congresswoman as he went after her and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay?" Trump said. "Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face."

Trump continued, "You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, 'Oh, gee, well, let's send a -- let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.'"

The Harris campaign called Trump saying "nine barrels" a reference to a traditional nine-gun "firing squad."

Vice President Kamala Harris, responding directly to the comments later Friday, said they should be "disqualifying."

"Anyone who wants to be president of the United States, who uses that kind of violent rhetoric, is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president," Harris said. "Representative Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above part. Trump is increasingly, however, someone who considers his political opponents the enemy, is permanently out for revenge and is increasingly unstable and unhinged."

Cheney, a Republican but a vocal critic of Trump over his behavior after the 2020 election and on Jan. 6, 2021, has endorsed Harris in the 2024 election.

While campaigning alongside Harris, Cheney cast Trump as a danger to democracy and the Constitution.

"We see it on a daily basis, somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he's not reelected," Cheney told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week" earlier this fall after publicly backing Harris.

Trump's remarks against Cheney are the latest in a string of increasingly dark and violent campaign rhetoric.

The former president doubled down on his "enemy from within" language after he previously suggested Democrats are more of a threat to the U.S. than top foreign adversaries such as China and Russia when it comes to the 2024 election.

"We do have an enemy from within," he told Carlson on Thursday. "We have some very bad people, and those people are also very dangerous. They would like to take down our country. They'd like to have our country be a nice communist country or a fascist in any way they can. And we have to be careful of that."

Harris campaign senior adviser Ian Sams responded to Trump's comments during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, during which he called the former president "all-consumed by his grievances."

"I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates," Sams said. "You have Donald Trump who is 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.”

Karoline Leavitt, Trump's spokesperson, claimed on Friday Trump's words were being taken out of context.

"President Trump was CLEARLY explaining that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves," Leavitt wrote on X.

Trump, too, offered a similar spin on his comments later Friday as they remained a focal point of the campaign trail.

"All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have 'the guts' to fight herself," Trump wrote on his social media platform.

"It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, 'No thanks!'" Trump wrote.

ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim, Kelsey Walsh and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.