WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday supported rioters who were shot by police as they stormed the Capitol and blasted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for defending the officer.
McCarthy said Thursday that the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, was just doing his job.
“I do not agree with the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, because the Police Officer ‘Thug,’ who has a very good past, was not just ‘doing his job’ when he shot and killed the Great Patriot Ashli. Babbitt at point blank range,” wrote Trump in Truth Social.
Babbitt was shot while trying to climb through a broken window in the barricaded entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby, which is outside the House chamber, as lawmakers fled. He was part of a crowd that threatened the officer guarding the entrance and broke the window with his bare hands. Capitol Police say the officer’s actions saved lives.
Trump’s post represents a collision course from McCarthy’s speech. He won the job with the support of far-right lawmakers like Rep.
Occupied by McCarthy with a seat on the House Oversight Committee, this week Greene used a new platform to claim Babbitt was “murdered”, comparing his death to the police killing of Tire Nichols. He hesitantly claimed in an interview with HuffPost that Babbitt did not try to climb through the window, contrary to video evidence.
HuffPost asked McCarthy on Friday if he agreed with Greene that Babbitt was murdered. “I think the police officers did their job,” he said, avoiding comment on Greene’s inflammatory comments.
Even an anodyne statement supporting the police set McCarthy up for a clash with Trump.
Trump has not only praised the riotous supporters but also participated in fundraising for the legal defense of the man accused of assaulting the police on January 6. Post Friday is not the first time Trump has criticized the officer who took Babbitt.
The official, Lt. Michael Byrd, acquitted of criminal wrongdoing by the Department of Justice in 2021.
Byrd told NBCNews in a tearful 2021 interview that he believed he had done his job to protect members of Congress. He said he had been in hiding for months because of a flood of death threats due to a right-wing website.
“This officer and the officer’s family have been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats to the actions they take as part of the duties of all our officers: defending Congress, Members, staff and the democratic process,” the Capitol Police said in a statement that year.
Trump, an expert at rallying supporters and directing harassment at anyone he deems an obstacle, used the statement Thursday to deliver more Byrd-style abuse.
“Despite trying to keep him anonymous, shielded, and protected, this MISFIT proudly appeared on NBC’s Fake Nightly News ‘talking’ about the assassination,” Trump wrote on Thursday. “HE’S NOT A HERO HE’S A COWARD, WHO WANTS TO SHOW HOW HARD HE IS. ASHLI BABBITT IS KILLED!!!”