WATCH: Trump Phones Into Rally, Calls Capitol Police Officer Who Shot Ashli Babbitt a ‘Disgrace’
Former President Donald Trump criticized the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt.
Video shared on Twitter by News2Share editor-in-chief Ford Fischer showed the former president on the phone with Babbitt’s mother Micki Witthoeft at a rally for jailed Capitol riot defendants in Washington, D.C.
Fischer said the call took place outside a Washington jail where rioters are confined. Witthoeft answer a call, and Trump’s voice could be heard on speaker phone.
BREAKING VIDEO: Former President Trump spoke tonight on the phone to Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, as she rallied for January 6 defendants outside DC jail.
“We’re with you. We’re working with a lot of different people on this,” Trump said. “We can’t let this happen.” pic.twitter.com/os0MZnMwUv
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) September 13, 2022
Witthoeft placed the phone up to a microphone and told Trump he was live. Trump addressed the crowd:
Well, Micki, it’s an honor to be with you and to everybody listening, it’s a terrible thing that has happened to a lot of people that are being treated very, very unfairly. We love Ashli and it was just so horrible what happened to her. That man that shot Ashli is a disgrace.
And then he goes on television and it looks like he was actually bragging about it.
Trump claimed the confinements of Jan. 6 defendants are unprecedented. He cited the riots throughout the summer of 2020 and beyond as evidence.
“You look at all of the riots that took place for the last long period of time, not just in 2020, the last long period of time, and almost nothing has happened to those people,” he said. “And what they’re doing here is a disgrace.”
Trump told the crowd, “God bless everybody, we are working very hard.”
Witthoeft thanked Trump for the call, and implied people presumably jailed inside would appreciate his support.
Fischer did not identify the jail, or how many defendants are inside.
Babbitt was shot and killed on Jan. 6 as she attempted to break through a barricaded doorway during the certification of the 2020 election results. The shooting occurred not long after Trump addressed a crowd of thousands who marched on the building.
