'Execution fantasy': CNN host debunks GOP spin on Trump’s violent anti-Cheney rhetoric

With Election Night 2024 only four days away, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing yet another controversy — this time, in response to comments calling for violence against former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming).

During a Thursday, October 31 event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump said of Cheney, "She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face."

Cheney, a conservative who is supporting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, called Trump out in a November 1 post on X, formerly Twitter.

READ MORE:'Hurts the consumer': Companies planning substantial price hikes in anticipation of Trump tariffs

Cheney tweeted, "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."

Trump's supporters, meanwhile, have been rushing to his defense and claiming that he wasn't promoting violence against Cheney.

But CNN's Jim Acosta, in a November 1 broadcast, stressed that Trump's threat was hardly subtle.

Acosta argued, "Donald Trump talking about executing Liz Cheney — and let's just be clear: when you talk about nine barrels, I'm sorry for all the folks out there who want to dance on the head of a pin, that is what he is talking about. An execution fantasy. "

READ MORE: New Gallup poll suggests Dems’ election results could mirror Obama’s 2008 victory

Watch the full video below or at this link.