Donald Trump said former Rep. Liz Cheney is a “war hawk” who should be sent into the line of fire, as he raged against one of his most prominent intra-party critics while campaigning Thursday night in Arizona.

       The former president hurled insults at Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in House leadership, calling her “very dumb,” a “stupid person” and “the moron” at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

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

       Trump’s suggestion that Cheney be sent into the line of fire represents an escalation of the threatening language he has used to target his political foes. The former president in recent weeks has also suggested a military crackdown on political opponents he has described as “the enemy within.”

       Cheney is perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and his role in his supporters’ January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. She played a leading role on the House select committee that investigated the attack, and later was ousted from her deep-red Wyoming House seat by a Trump-backed primary opponent in 2022.

       In recent weeks, Cheney has campaigned alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, urging Republicans to set aside party differences to back the Democrat and reject a candidate she says poses a threat to democracy.

       Trump said Thursday he was surprised former Vice President Dick Cheney also endorsed Harris, because he had pardoned Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted of perjury in 2007.

       “I don’t blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter’s a very dumb individual — very dumb,” Trump said.

       Trump said Cheney is a “stupid person” and claimed that when the Wyoming Republican was in House Republican leadership, “she always wanted to go to war with people.”

       “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying … ‘Let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,’” he said.