‘ASHLI BABBITT WAS MURDERED!!!’ Trump Rages After McCarthy Defends Officer Who Shot Jan 6 Rioter
The politically symbiotic relationship between former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may be wobbling. At issue is the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police Officer during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 as she tried to break into the House Chamber.
Trump took issue with McCarthy after the House Speaker broke from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party — and its most popular voices like Trump, Tucker Carlson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene — by declaring that Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt was not murdered by a police officer.
McCarthy condemned the attack but eventually forgave Trump for inspiring it and told reporters Thursday that he did not believe Babbitt was “murdered.”
After bringing up Greene’s comments this week, a reporter asked McCarthy: “Do you think Ashli Babbitt was murdered, or you think the police officer who shot her was doing his job?”
“I think the police officer did his job,” McCarthy said.
This take did not sit well with Trump, who posted some pointed pushback directed at McCarthy in a Thursday evening social media post. Trump wrote:
I totally disagree with the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, in that the Police Officer “Thug,”
who has had a very checkered past to begin with, was not just “doing his job” when he shot and killed Great Patriot Ashli Babbitt at point blank range. Despite trying to keep him anonymous, shielded, and protected, this MISFIT proudly showed up on NBC Fake Nightly News “bragging” about the killing. He was not a hero but a COWARD, who wanted to show how tough he was. ASHLI BABBITT WAS MURDERED!!!
McCarthy blamed Trump for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 by his supporters trying to overturn the election results, which Trump lost. But weeks later traveled to Mar-a-Lago, metaphorical hat in hand. They repaired the tenuous political relationship enough so that, two years later, Trump worked on McCarthy’s behalf to help him gain the House Speakership.
