Former President Donald Trump is in full backpedal mode after being caught off guard by public outrage over his remark that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) should be made to stare down "nine barrels shooting at her ... when the guns are trained on her face," New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN's Jake Tapper on Friday.
Trump is trying to argue that he didn't literally mean Cheney should be executed but rather made to face the consequences of foreign wars she and her father supported.
"Maggie, I have to say I'm not sure that, 'Hey, I wasn't literally calling for her to be killed' is the strongest closing message," said Tapper. "But, you know, maybe I'm wrong."
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"Look, he appeared to be making an argument about people who send other citizens or citizens' children into war and don't fight themselves," said Haberman. "This is an argument that we heard back in the 2000s when Liz Cheney's father was in office as the vice president. But he made it in the most violent way possible ... and this is not how wars work. People don't go and have nine barrels on their face."
"So, you know, this is just — it's another thing that he says, they shouldn't be surprised that it's getting coverage," Haberman continued. "This is — statements that candidates make in the closing days of a race are going to get attention."
"This is something that I don't think the Trump campaign wants to be dealing with," she added. "You can see they're trying to clean it up. He tried to clean it up himself. He posted on Truth Social. It's just — it's one other thing that just, you know, potentially could factor into voters' minds as they are making up their final, you know, choice on a ballot, particularly women voters, where there's a gap."
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