At his final campaign event in Arizona, former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday night insulted Liz Cheney, one of his most outspoken Republican critics, and used menacing imagery to suggest she should be sent into the line of fire.

During an onstage interview with Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host and a top Trump ally, Mr. Trump hurled personal attacks at Ms. Cheney, who is campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris. Then, taking issue with her foreign policy approach, he suggested she should be put in a war zone.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Mr. Trump said, in front of thousands at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz. “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

He continued by expressing disdain for those in Washington who wanted to see the United States involved in foreign conflicts. “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.’”

Mr. Trump’s violent hypothetical came as he has recently intensified the dark and at times threatening language he uses toward his political opponents. The former president, whose lie that he won the 2020 election spurred some of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, once again on Thursday referred to a pernicious “enemy within” that needed to be addressed. He has previously described his enemies as “vermin” that needed to be rooted out. (Ms. Cheney was the top Republican on the House committee that investigated Mr. Trump’s role in the Capitol riot.)

His language reflects the charged environment surrounding this year’s election. Democrats and some Republicans have increasingly warned that Mr. Trump exhibits authoritarian tendencies, with Ms. Harris recently calling him a “fascist.” Mr. Trump and his allies have argued that such language has fueled an overheated political climate that they argue has led to political violence, ignoring that Mr. Trump has long used similar language to describe Democrats.

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