Former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is slamming former President Donald Trump’s description of her in a war setting with “guns trained on her face,” saying such language is how “dictators destroy free nations.”

Ms. Cheney, a leading Republican critic of her party’s presidential nominee, responded Friday after Mr. Trump late Thursday called her a “very dumb” person and a “war hawk” during an Arizona event with Tucker Carlson.

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Mr. Trump said.

While he was describing a hypothetical war situation, his comments will reverberate as another instance of Mr. Trump’s eyebrow-raising rhetoric about his opponents.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Ms. Cheney wrote on X with a clip of Mr. Trump’s comments. “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.”

SEE ALSO: WATCH: Trump says Liz Cheney might not be such a ‘war hawk’ if she had guns pointed at her

Mr. Trump is locked in a tight presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tens of thousands of votes in several states will likely decide the contest.

Ms. Harris is courting Republicans leery of Mr. Trump by doing campaign events with Ms. Cheney, one of the biggest GOP critics of Mr. Trump and his actions following the 2020 election.

Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has endorsed Ms. Harris.

Mr. Trump said it was somewhat surprising because he had pardoned Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, for his perjury conviction in 2007.

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

Mr. Trump said Ms. Cheney and other “war hawks” inclined to send people into fights abroad from the comfort of Washington.

“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.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.