Watch GOP lawmaker fail at defending Trump over Cheney shooting remark

At a campaign event on Thursday night, Donald Trump told Tucker Carlson he thought former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney—an outspoken Trump critic—was a “radical war hawk.” He added “Let’s put her where the rifle’s standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about—you know when the guns are trained on her face.” 

Friday morning, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee was on CNN to stump for Trump, and host Jim Acosta asked about those comments. Burchett was initially dismissive of the comment as anti-war rhetoric.

“What he says, ‘nine barrels shooting at her.’ That obviously evokes images of a firing squad,” Acosta repeated. “It evokes images of an execution. Does it not? Why? Why would he say nine barrels?

“I don't know why he would say nine—I didn't know there were nine barrels … in a firing squad, quite honestly,” Burchett said. “So I'm a little at a little loss at that,” adding that the Cheney family has profited off of wars. And that war profiting is totally true, but not what Trump was saying.