Former President Donald Trump is defending House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A close aide, for the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashley Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot.
Asked about comments by Rep. Marjorie. “the police officer did his job,” he told reporters Thursday.
That led to a rebuke on social media from Trump.
Who posted on his Truth social account, “I disagree with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy”. That the officer “shot and killed the great patriot Ashley Babbitt.”
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and Trump supporter. Threatened police officers with a crowd of rioters on Jan. 6 when. They tried to break through the glass doors leading to the House chambers. Dozens of lawmakers and activists were trapped. Inside as police tried to find the safest way to evacuate them.
“As members of the crowd continued to pound on the glass door. The Justice Department said in its review of the shooting.
Which was caught on video by one of the protesters.
The officer “fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder. Causing her to back out of the doorway and fall to the floor,” the Justice Department statement said. .
The Justice Department officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, declined to press charges. Saying they found no evidence to contradict his contention. That he believed Babbitt “needed to shoot in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress.
Byrd was cleared of any wrongdoing in a separate internal Capitol Police investigation.
In an August 2021 interview with todaystrend News. Byrd said he yelled for the rioters to come back and that he fired his weapon as a “last resort.”
“If they go through that door, they’ll be in the House chamber. And on members of Congress,” Byrd told Lester Holt, “I tried to wait as long as I could.”
“I hoped and prayed that no one tried to enter through this door. But for their failure to comply I had to take appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress.
And myself and my fellow officers,” he said.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump referred to Byrd, a black 28-year. Veteran of the Capitol Police, as a “thug” and a “coward” who wanted to show how tough he is.
Trump’s challenge to McCarthy comes a month. After the former president tried to help him. Seize the speakership by reaching out to Republicans. Who opposed his bid for the leadership.
