House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday defended the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 Capitol riot, saying that the officer was just doing his job.
McCarthy’s comments came as he was asked to respond to statements from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has said that Babbitt was murdered while inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot.
“I think the police officer did his job,” McCarthy said during a briefing with reporters.
The officer in question, Lt. Michael Byrd, shot Babbitt as she tried to make her way through a broken window of a barricaded door near the Speaker’s Lobby, as shown in video clips. Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was unarmed.
The Justice Department refused to pursue criminal charges, and the Capitol Police declined to take disciplinary action in connection to the incident. “The investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber,” the DOJ said.
Byrd said that his actions on January 6 saved “countless lives” and that he only fired his weapon as a “last resort.”
McCarthy’s comments differ from Greene and some other Republicans who have demanded that Byrd face legal consequences. “There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6, Ashli Babbitt. And Ashli Babbitt has, there’s never been a trial. 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,” Greene said during a meeting of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump also weighed in on the issue, saying on Truth Social that he disagreed with McCarthy.
“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,” Trump said.
“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!!!” he added.
Ashli Babbitt’s mother was arrested last month during a demonstration at the Capitol for allegedly blocking and obstructing a roadway but later released after the charges were dropped.