Ex-Trump official dogpiled for defending Trump's 'nine barrels' remark toward Liz Cheney

Former Trump administration official Matt Mowers tried to defend former President Donald Trump's remarks that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of the most prominent conservatives to back Vice President Kamala Harris, should be put "with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her," arguing he was just criticizing Cheney for not willing to be in the infantry of foreign wars she supported.

His fellow panelists on CNN, Democratic strategist Alencia Johnson and correspondent Jamie Gangel, didn't buy his explanation.

"He wasn't calling for Liz Cheney to be on a firing line," said Mowers. "The exact same thing, by the way that we heard a lot of folks when they were campaigning against George Bush in 2004, say, when he was sending troops off to Iraq and Afghanistan, saying, 'If you haven't been there, your family is not going there. Do you really know what the impact is?' ... That's what he was saying."

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"And look, I say this as someone who's willing to say he went over the line like when he said she should be indicted. I disagree with him. I'll call him out for that," Mowers continued. However, he added, "I think the reason he's going out there and talking about it more is they don't think this is necessarily a political loser right now ... Liz Cheney was out there campaigning with Kamala Harris in, I believe it was Wisconsin." And since then, he added "the polls have tightened" because politics of people like Cheney are "out of vogue right now."

"Number one, you want to call Liz Cheney a war hawk, go ahead, do it," shot back Gangel. "You don't need all the other dangerous language around it."

Johnson agreed.

"We cannot negate what has been happening. Donald Trump's incendiary language like this led us to January 6th, right? Like, that is hanging over the backdrop of this entire election. It is language like this that has emboldened some people to light ballot boxes on fire, right? ... There is dangerous language here that people are actually taking matters into their own hands. Donald Trump, literally attempted assassination towards him, right? There are so many things that are happening, and so you can make — paint this picture, not using that language."

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