WASHINGTON: Prominent Republican and vocal Donald Trump critic Liz Cheney called the former president a "vindictive, cruel" dictator on Friday.
"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 on 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 criticised 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 on 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."
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 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 "hating warmonger... who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. - AFP
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