Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson at a benefit event in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday night, Oct. 31 (AZcentral/The Arizona Republic/YouTube).
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is probing comments made by Donald Trump at an event in the battleground state, where he reportedly told attendees that former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney wouldn’t be much of a “war hawk” if she had “nine barrels shooting at her.”
“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is looking into whether Donald Trump’s comments about Liz Cheney violated Arizona law,” Richie Taylor, the AG’s communications director, confirmed in an email to Law&Crime on Friday.
Reports of the probe circulated throughout the day after Trump’s appearance at the arena benefit event in Glendale, Ariz., alongside former Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson.
“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said at the event while speaking with Carlson about Cheney’s foreign policy, AZFamily reported. “Let’s put her with the 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.”
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
Responding in an X post on Friday, Cheney — a longtime Trump opponent — compared the former president’s comments to that of a “dictator,” saying: “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.”
While Taylor told Law&Crime that the AG’s office would have “no additional comments to make at this time” regarding the Trump probe, Mayes was able to provide a little more insight during an interview with KPNX, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, on Friday.
“I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” the AG said. “I’m not prepared now to say whether it was or it wasn’t, but it is not helpful as we prepare for our election and as we try to make sure that we keep the peace at our polling places and in our state.”
Under Arizona law, intimidating statements or threats can be considered a Class 1 misdemeanor or Class 6 felony in certain cases. The charges can carry possible sentences of up to two years in prison.
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