The U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt on January 6 as she was trying to break into the hallway where lawmakers were evacuating was not security detail assigned to a specific member of Congress, NBC News reports.
Trump, in his ongoing effort to both whitewash the deadly insurrection he incited and to pin the blame on Democrats, suggested without evidence during an interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the officer was “the head of security for a certain high official, a Democrat.”
The right-wing fever swamps seized on the comments to aggressively speculate that Trump was alluding to Nancy Pelosi.
That rumor is false, a source confirmed to NBC News and CNN Monday.
NEW: The U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt on January 6 was not part of a security detail for a specific member of Congress, a law enforcement source tells @CNN, knocking down a claim made by President Donald Trump over the weekend. Per @ZcohenCNN
— Pervaiz Shallwani (@Pervaizistan) July 12, 2021
NEW: The officer who shot Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on 1/6 was not a part of a specific security detail to a member of Congress, a senior law enforcement official tells NBC News.
This refutes the assertions made by former President Trump in a televised interview yesterday.
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) July 12, 2021
The ex-president also called Babbitt an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman,” part of his attempt to rebrand the violent mob of his supporters and the events of that day as “peaceful.”
