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Trump attacks Liz Cheney as “war hawk,” saying see how she feels “when the guns are trained on her face”
Washington — Former President Donald Trump attacked former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most ardent critics, on Thursday as a “war hawk” and suggested she be sent into the line of fire.
During a live interview with conservative personality Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump insulted Cheney’s intelligence and suggested she would have different views if she had guns pointed at her.
Cheney, Trump said, “is a very dumb individual, very dumb. 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.”
The Republican presidential nominee added, “They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.’ But she’s a stupid person, and I used to have —I’d have meetings with a lot of people, and she always wanted to go to war with people.”
Cheney responded to Trump’s attacks on social media Friday, writing that his comments demonstrate the actions of a dictator.
“This is how dictators destroy free nations. 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 wrote, adding hashtags stating “women will not be silenced” and “vote Kamala.”
Cheney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and has appeared on the campaign trail with the Democratic nominee as they work to persuade Republican voters who have soured on Trump to back the vice president.
A spokesman for Harris’ campaign, Ian Sams, condemned Trump’s remarks and said the former president treats those who oppose him as enemies.
“He’s 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,” Sams said Friday in an interview on MSNBC. “I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates. 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.”
Cheney was not the only Republican official who earned Trump’s ire during the event with Carlson. The former president called John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser, a “real dope” and “nut job.” Trump also lambasted former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, as a “total whack job,” and Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, as a “watermelon head.”
The former president also reiterated his claim that there is an “enemy from within,” who “would like to take down our country.”
Olivia Rinaldi and
contributed to this report.
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Election 2024 live updates amid neck-and-neck polls as Harris and Trump make push in battleground states
Supreme Court denies GOP request to block counting of certain provisional ballots in battleground Pennsylvania
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to freeze a decision from Pennsylvania’s highest court that required election officials to count provisional ballots cast by people whose mail ballots are invalid because they lacked mandatory secrecy envelopes.
The order from the justices means that election officials in the key battleground state must tally provisional ballots submitted on Election Day by voters who returned defective mail ballots, either because they didn’t include secrecy envelopes or failed to sign or date the outer envelope.
Trump holds final Wisconsin rally of campaign
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump held his final Wisconsin rally of the 2024 campaign Friday night, returning to Fiserv Forum, in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican convention, to deliver his closing message to the Badger State. In 2016, he narrowly won Wisconsin but he lost the state’s 10 electoral votes to Joe Biden in 2020.
The rally was plagued by microphone problems. People in the upper sections in the back of the arena couldn’t hear Trump, and he expressed frustration with the technical issues.
“I’m seething. I’m working my ass off with a stupid mic,” Trump said.
He then made crude gestures toward the mic stand, complaining it was too low. He held the microphone for the rest of the rally but complained about how heavy it was several times. He also threatened not to pay the contractor.
“Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?” Trump asked. “I don’t ask for much. The only thing I ask for is a good mic. And this is the second time today that this happened.”
He loosely blamed campaign manager Susie Wiles for the microphone issue.
By Olivia Rinaldi and Katrina Kaufman
Harris and Trump both rally in Milwaukee area Friday night
Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Both Donald Trump Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned in the Milwaukee area Friday night, going into the final weekend of the 2024 campaign. Harris didn’t deviate much from her standard stump speech in West Allis, Michigan, a Milwaukee suburb of Milwaukee. She urged people to vote who haven’t yet cast their ballots.
“No judgment, no judgment at all — but do get to it,” Harris said, before reviewing the list of her campaign promises and litany of grievances against Trump.
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Cardi B, who spoke shortly before Harris, told the crowd she didn’t intend to vote this year, but “Kamala Harris changed my mind.”
She called Trump a “bully” and said, “I can’t stand a bully, but just like Kamala, I stand up to one.” Cardi B repeatedly said she was nervous about speaking at the rally. Women, she said, have to work 10 times harder than men “and still, people question us.”
Leslie Reeves and Chris Smith were shot during their first date. Only Smith survived. A look at how he defied the odds to make a remarkable recovery.
The scene of the crime
Illinois State Police
On the night before Thanksgiving 2021, Smith went on a first date with a woman named Leslie Reeves. The morning after, first responders found Smith in his Farmersville, Illinois, home with a bullet lodged in his brain. Reeves was dead.
Shooting victim in a coma
Chris Smith
EMTs rushed Smith to a hospital where he underwent brain surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.
A bullet lodged in his brain
Chris Smith
Fragments of the bullet remained in Smith’s brain. His doctors say that to retrieve the bullet could risk causing further damage.
Family support
Chris Smith
Smith’s mother, Sharon Costanza, and sister, Ashli Holcomb, sat by his side during his recovery. Doctors told them chances were very low that Smith would return to his previous level of functioning.
No memory
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In January 2022, Smith woke from his coma and asked where he was and what had happened. He remembered nothing from the night of the shooting. He had no memory of his date with Reeves, even though he’d been talking on the phone and messaging with her two weeks before the shooting.
A poor prognosis
CBS News
Due to Smith’s injuries, his neurosurgeon, Dr. Victor Williams, told Smith he likely would not be able to walk again. Williams and his team were dedicated to doing everything they could to aid Chris’ recovery.
A life forever changed
CBS News
Smith’s left leg is partially paralyzed from his hip to his knee. From his knee to his toes, he is completely paralyzed.After he left the hospital, he had to move back in with his mother.
Regaining his strength
CBS News
Most days, Smith goes to the gym and works on regaining his strength so that someday he’ll be able to walk without assistance.
A survivor
Chris Smith
Smith says he is determined to hold on tight to his new lease on life. He is back singing with his rock band. And he proposed to his fianceé, Michelle Albrecht.
New aspirations
CBS News
‘Smith hopes to become a motivational speaker and has his own website.
A miracle recovery
CBS News
Smith’s mother says his recovery is nothing short of a miracle.
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