Vice President Kamala Harris harnessed a media-generated hoax about former President Donald Trump’s views on foreign war to smear him just days before Election Day.

Harris suggested that Trump called for guns to be pointed at Liz Cheney, but rather than speaking about executing Cheney, Trump’s remarks were about the establishment’s willingness to send Americans to die in foreign wars.

“All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself,” Trump said Friday on Truth Social:

It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, “No thanks!” Her father decimated the Middle East, and other places, and got rich by doing so. He’s caused plenty of DEATH, and probably never even gave it a thought. That’s not what we want running our Country!

Harris, nevertheless, took the opportunity to tell the media that Trump “increased his violent rhetoric … about political opponents and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney.”

“This must be disqualifying,” Harris claimed. “Rep. Cheney is a true patriot”:

Trump and fellow Republicans were not the only ones to condemn the hoax. NeverTrumpers and some in the establishment media also condemned the hoax:

  • Joe Walsh, former congressman: “Trump did NOT call for Liz Cheney to be executed. This is what’s so wrong with our politics today. … This short clip is so deceptive. Trump is NOT calling for Liz Cheney to be executed in front of a firing line. He’s not. Listen to the entirety of what he said. … [H]e’s trying to make a point about Cheney’s stance on war. But Aaron (who I like & respect), by posting ONLY this 11 second clip, makes it look like he’s calling for her to be executed. He’s not.”
  • Zach Beauchamp, Vox senior correspondent: “Folks, Trump didn’t threaten to execute Liz Cheney. He actually was calling her a chickenhawk, something liberals said about her for ages. Look at the context — Trump is talking about giving her a weapon. Typically, people put in front of firing squads aren’t armed.”
  • Kat Rosenfield, Free Press columnist: “I also don’t support journalists lying to their audiences, and when he says (paraphrased) ‘these pro-war people wouldn’t be talking such a big game if they were on the front lines’ it is actually not the same thing as saying they should be shot.”

Watch Trump comments on Cheney and foreign war here.

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.