The Arizona attorney general’s office is investigating Trump’s abusive comments about Liz Cheney

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Friday that her office is investigating whether former President Donald Trump’s abusive remarks about former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney broke the law.

“I have already asked my chief of the criminal division to begin looking at that statement and analyzing it to see if it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona law,” Mayes, a Democrat, said during a taping of “Sunday Square Off” on 12NEWS in Phoenix.

“I am not prepared now to say whether it was or was not, but it is not helpful as we prepare for our elections and as we try to ensure that we keep the peace at our polling stations and in our state,” Mayes told the NBC affiliate.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, Richie Taylor, confirmed to NBC News that the office is “investigating” whether Trump’s remarks violated Arizona law. NBC News reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

At an event in Arizona with Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Trump suggested that Cheney wouldn’t be such a “war hawk” if she had guns “trained in her face.”

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” Trump said. “Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face – you know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building.”

In a post on his Truth Social on Friday afternoon, Trump said Cheney “wouldn’t have the ‘guts’ to fight herself. It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes are taking place, but put a gun in her hand and let her go fight and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!'” In remarks to reporters later Friday, Trump defended his comments about Cheney, calling her a war hawk again and saying “she kills people”

Earlier in the day, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “100% right that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them instead of going to war themselves.”

Trump has escalated his violent rhetoric on the campaign trail in the past month. He has called Democrats and his opponents “the enemy from within” and has vowed to use the US military against American citizens. He has also said during the 2024 race that he may jail his political opponents.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that former President Trump’s remarks about Cheney should be “disqualifying.”

“He has increased his violent rhetoric that Donald Trump has about political opponents and suggested in great detail that rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney,” Harris told reporters after landing near Madison, Wis.

“This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” she added.

Harris said Trump is “permanently out for revenge” and he is “increasingly unstable and unhinged.” “His enemies list has gotten longer, his rhetoric has gotten more extreme, and he’s even less focused than before on the needs and concerns and challenges facing the American people,” she said.

When asked to comment on Harris’ remarks, Leavitt repeated his statement from earlier in the day.

NBC News reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the Arizona investigation.