Transcript: “She’s a radical war hawk let’s put her with a rifle”
Summary:
Trump did not threaten Liz Cheney with a firing squad, although he did use violent rhetoric when portraying Cheney as a “Chicken/Warhawk” who is quick to send others into war, but avoids putting themselves at risk. 1
- Trump’s narrative: She doesn’t like me because she is a warhawk, and being a warhawk is stupid. It costs a lot and we don’t get to keep the oil.
- Trump refuses to acknowledge that there are legitimate critics of J6 of whom Liz Cheney may be one.
- Trump attacks her for her “stupid warhawk positions,” and there are legitimate arguments against warhawks like John McCain & Lindsay Graham, but the reason why Trump doesn’t like her is because she was on the J6 committee and even more importantly, as Tucker Points out at the beginning of this topic, Liz Cheney is campaigning with Kamala Harris, costing him real votes.
- I would expect Trump to verbally oppose any former allies who visibly attack him, as Liz Cheney has done, using whatever criticisms that are readily available, whether or not he actually believes in the narrative.
Breakdown:
- It starts with Tucker Carlson bringing up the Bush/Cheney families and the fact that Liz Cheney is campaigning with Kamala Harris
- Trump immediately goes after Liz Cheney’s advocacy of staying in Iraq & Syria
- Trump implies the fact that Cheney badly lost re-election shows she was wrong or at least a “loser”, which is the worst thing you can be for Trump.
- Trump: fighting wars isn’t profitable. You don’t get to keep the oil, and it kills large numbers of people
- Trump might be a warhawk too if he thought it had a good payoff and the US was winning the wars: (We don’t win anymore)
- Trump: The Iraq War was bad for many reasons. It helped Iran because it neutralized Iraq, which was there big rival.
- Dick Cheney convinced Bush to go into Iraq, which was a horrible mistake:
- It cost $9 Trillion and we got nothing but dead people
- Notice he doesn’t go after Dick Cheney or John Bolton, but they didn’t attack him or campaign with his opponent.
- I expect Trump would go after Dick Cheney and John Bolton personally if they was a more vocal public critics.
- Scooter Libby had dirt on Bush and was prosecuted as an almost sacrificial lamb
- Trump had the “courage” to grant Scooter a pardon, which shows how great Trump is and how Dick Cheney is in Trump’s debt
- Trump gives Dick Cheney points for being “loyal” to Scooter Libby. (The Mafia have a “code” of loyalty too)
- Dick Cheney showed appreciation to Trump for the pardon and Trump respected Scooter for not “squealing” (my choice of words)
- Trump returns to the subject of Liz Cheney being a radical warhawk/chicken hawk, which is an established line of attack
- See transcript below: Let’s put her with a rifle ..
- They’re all warhawks when they’re sitting in Washington
- I had meetings with Liz Cheney and she always wanted to go to war with people.
- Trump argues that the J6 committee put out false narratives about Trump using a choke hold against the Secret Service. (But Trump mentions the thought that it might not be so objectionable to be portrayed as so tough and powerful to mix it up with the Secret Service)
- One of Trump’s “tells” is that whenever the people in his story address him as “Sir”, he is lying. (although he is lying other times too, but: “Sir” suggests that he is narrating a story for dramatic effect)
- Trump makes the accusation that the Secret Service agents contradicted the story about him grabbing one of them by the neck (which he exaggerates by terming it a “choke hold”), so he’s not really disputing the actual allegation, but rather his own exaggeration.
- Trump also alleges that J6 evidence was destroyed — this is something that could be verified or falsified, or at least we could learn what sort of grievance he is referring to.
- Trump argues that The Democrats used lawfare against their political opponent (Trump), which is Banana Republic stuff. I think Trump has a point about some of the cases, but the solution is not to engage in counter-lawfare — that’s really Banana Republic stuff.2
Of the two lines of attack, I think Trump cares much more about Cheney being on the J6 committee and campaigning against him than about her being a “war/chicken hawk”.Notice the theme that both Trump and the Democrats refuse to acknowledge is that they might have legitimate critics. I suppose that Trump thinks it is “disloyal” for Liz Cheney to have participated in the J6 committee and really disloyal to campaign with his opponent.SELECTED TRANSCRIPT:
The Beginning of the Liz Cheney theme is several minutes before the “Let’s put her with a rifle” line.
Yes Trump avoided fighting in the Vietnam war. He claims he is less quick to initiate new military action. (more below)↩
Crazy idea: If Trump were to issue pardons for those that engaged in lawfare, he could portray himself as “the better man.”↩