Trump calls police officer who killed Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt a murderer: 'We know who he is'
Trump called the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a murderer and said, "We know who he is."
Babbitt was shot while trying to break into the Speaker's Lobby during the January 6 insurrection.
Trump and other prominent conservatives have tried to turn her into a martyr of the Capitol riot.
Former President Donald Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric against the law-enforcement officer who shot Ashli Babbitt in a Wednesday statement, calling them a murderer and saying, "We know who he is."
Babbitt died after a law-enforcement officer shot her as she tried to climb through a broken window to get into the Speaker's Lobby during the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
"I spoke to the wonderful mother and husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered at the hands of someone who should have never pulled the trigger of his gun," Trump said. "We know who he is. If this happened to the 'other side,' there would be riots all over America, and yet there are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side."
Trump then added: "The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!"
He and Republicans in Congress like Rep. Paul Gosar have sought to turn Babbitt into a martyr, saying she was unjustly killed and wrongly targeted by law enforcement. GOP lawmakers have cited her death to say that the insurrection wasn't as serious as it appeared and she didn't pose a threat.
In a July 11 call-in to Fox News, Trump called Babbitt a "wonderful woman, young woman, who went to peaceful protest," despite the fact that the riot was not peaceful, and suggested without evidence that the person who shot her was "the head of security for a certain high official, a Democrat."
The Daily Beast reported in mid-July that Trump had privately complained to those around him that he should have lowered the flag in honor of Babbitt before leaving office.
The Department of Justice decided not to bring criminal charges against the lieutenant who shot Babbitt after an investigation concluded the officer did not violate her civil rights. Babbitt's family is suing the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, in an effort to have it disclose the officer's identity.
Babbitt, who was 35, was a native of California and an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She went from voting for Barack Obama to ardently supporting Trump, people who knew Babbitt told Insider's Melkorka Licea. She became a strong believer of the QAnon conspiracy movement, which eventually drew her to storm the Capitol, the people said.
On January 6, rioters breached the Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from affirming President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. Five people - Babbitt, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, and three others - died following the riot, and hundreds of people have been charged with crimes in connection with the riot.
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