AG investigating if Trump's Liz Cheney comments at Arizona rally qualify as death threat

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’s office is investigating whether former President Donald Trump violated the law during a rally in Glendale on Thursday.

Mayes told 12 News she asked investigators to look into whether Trump’s comments targeting former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney qualify as a death threat under Arizona law.

“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is looking into whether Donald Trump’s comments about Liz Cheney violated the law. The office has no additional comments to make at this time,” a spokesman for the Attorney General told KJZZ.

Trump made the comments in question at a campaign event during a conversation with rightwing media personality Tucker Carlson.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said, referring to Cheney. “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it when the guns are trained on her face.”

Under Arizona law, it is a misdemeanor to threaten physical injury against another person.

Cheney, a vocal Trump critic, endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election and served on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Both Cheney and Harris criticized Trump for the comments.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney posted to social media. “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.”

Asked about the comments, Harris called Cheney “a true patriot” and said Trump “has increased his violent rhetoric.”

“His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme,” Harris said. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.”

Trump and his allies said the comments are being misconstrued and that he was making a point about Cheney’s foreign policy record, saying she is too quick to support America’s entrance into wars.

His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said his comments were being taken out of context, calling the controversy “the latest fake media outrage.”