House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday said Ashli Babbitt, the demonstrator shot and killed on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, was not murdered by a police officer.
"I think the police officer did his job," McCarthy told reporters when asked whether he thought she was murdered.
Babbitt, 35, was fatally shot while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the speaker's lobby inside the Capitol, where police officers were evacuating members of Congress from the mob supporting former President Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Other Republicans have characterized Babbitt's death differently.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., earlier this week said she wanted to use her position on the House Oversight Committee to investigate claims of "civil rights abuses" committed against Trump supporters arrested on Jan. 6 and review Babbitt's shooting.
"There's a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6, Ashli Babbitt, and … there's never been a trial," Greene said, referring to Babbitt's mother, Micki Witthoeft. "As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her. And no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue."
Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week on his show argued that Babbitt was "murdered … far more clearly" than Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who was beaten to death by five Memphis police officers last month.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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