Donald Trump musing that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) should face "nine barrels" — and a Republican lawmaker's refusal to condemn the violent remark — shocked a CNN anchor Friday morning.
Host Jim Acosta battled it out with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) over Trump's comment and the Tennessee Republican's refusal to disavow violent rhetoric that Acosta argued was a clear reference to a firing squad.
"At what point does a Republican member of Congress call out Trump for this kind of language?" Acosta said. "Doesn't any of this matter? Isn't this important that a candidate for president is saying Liz Cheney should be shot?"
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Tensions had slowly mounting as Burchett doubled down on the Trump campaign's assertion that the Republican presidential nominee meant to suggest war hawk lawmakers willing to send out troops should serve in the military themselves.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her," Trump said Thursday. "Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face."
His campaign later released a statement arguing Trump meant that "warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves."
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Burchett echoed this argument.
"He was not calling for her assassination or anything like that," Burchett said calmly. "If you're going to send people into combat, you ought to be the first one to go."
"But when he says 'nine barrels shooting at her," Acosta interrupted, "That obviously evokes images of a firing squad."
"I don't know why he would say 'nine barrels,'" Burchett said. "I didn't know there were nine barrels in a firing squad so I'm a little at a loss at that."
Despite his admitted ignorance about Trump's comment, Burchett said again it was still clear that Trump did not evoke images of a firing squad.
Acosta disagreed.
"I just don't get it," Acosta shot back. "It's outrageous."
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