Republican candidate for New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte is remaining silent after presidential candidate Donald Trump said Liz Cheney — a Republican Ayotte once called “someone I admire so much” — should be shot in the face via firing squad.
During a campaign event in Arizona with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump said the Republican former congresswoman was a “war hawk” who should be shot via firing squad.
“Let’s see how she feels when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said.
Ayotte appeared with Cheney on a YouTube video on COVID-19 response in April of 2020 as a part of her Winning for Women group which she led.
During the video, Ayotte praises Cheney as “a true expert” in the “national security space,” and says she is “someone I admire so much” and “a strong conservative woman” and thanked her for what she called Cheney’s “incredible service to our nation” and said of Cheney, “We are so fortunate to have a leader like her, representing not only her own state, but our whole country.”
The Ayotte campaign declined to comment on Trump’s violent suggestion both publicly and when reached via email.
Cheney responded to Trump’s comment saying: “This is how dictators destroy free nations.”
The lack of response from Ayotte comes after a tough exchange with a WMUR moderator during the final debate of the campaign in which Ayotte was asked three times in a row if she had any qualms over supporting Trump given his long criminal record — including a sexual assault conviction — despite Ayotte serving as a former prosecutor and as New Hampshire Attorney General, the top law enforcement official in the state.
Ayotte refused to answer the question, only offering that given the choice between Trump and Harris, she chose Trump. She then left the studio without offering a final statement.
Kamala Harris responded to the comments Friday, saying, “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric, is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”
The suggestion that Cheney — a longtime critic of Trump within his own political party — should be fired upon is an escalation by the candidate, who has said he would turn the U.S. military on domestic political enemies — including journalists and political opponents — and has supported releasing rioters responsible for the January 6 insurrection on the capitol.
New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan responded to the video on social media, saying “Donald Trump’s comments are unhinged and dangerous — it’s how tyrants speak, and there is no place for them in a democracy.”
