WASHINGTON, Nov 1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Prominent Republican and vocal Donald

Trump critic Liz Cheney called the former president a "vindictive, cruel"
dictator on Friday after he suggested she would be less of a "war hawk" with
guns trained on her face.

"This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak
against them with death," the former US congresswoman and daughter of ex-vice
president Dick Cheney said Friday in a post on social platform X.

"We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel,
unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."

Trump -- who is running for reelection -- made the remarks as he criticized
Cheney's father for endorsing Democratic White House candidate Kamala Harris,
speaking during a fireside chat with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in
Arizona.

"And I don't blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a
very dumb individual, very dumb," Trump said Thursday.

"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."

The backlash was swift, with Harris campaign advisor Ian Sams contrasting
Trump "talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad" with
Harris "talking about sending one to her cabinet."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a top aide in Trump's White House, called his comments
"unconscionable."

"I don't know how Republican leaders -- many of whom served with Liz Cheney
and at one point considered her a colleague and friend -- cannot denounce
this. It's dangerous. It's escalatory," she told CNN.

A Trump campaign spokeswoman called Cheney a "warmonger" in a statement to
AFP, adding that the Republican meant that she is "very quick to start wars
and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat
themselves."

Cheney was once seen as rising star among the Republicans in the House of
Representatives but was booted from a leadership position and then lost her
Wyoming seat over her strong criticism of Trump's refusal to concede defeat
in the 2020 election.

The ex-president endorsed her opponent in the 2022 House primary, Harriet
Hageman.

Cheney -- who led the successful effort to have Trump impeached for a second
time -- announced last month that she would be voting for Harris and has
appeared with the vice president multiple times to woo soft conservatives.

Trump has a long history of attacking Cheney and as recently as last week
called her a "Muslim-hating warmonger... who wants to invade practically
every Muslim country on the planet."