Pelosi wants Republican leadership to condemn Trump's ‘threat’ against Ashli Babbitt shooter

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has called on Republican leaders to condemn a statement from Donald Trump in which he criticized the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 riot.

Pelosi spokesperson Robyn Patterson blasted Trump’s comments as “vile” in a Thursday statement and pushed for top House Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) to distance himself from the former president.

The Wednesday Trump statement revealed the Republican leader had spoken to Babbitt’s family and called her death a “murder.”

The officer pulled the trigger on Babbitt as she and others had broken into the US Capitol and were allegedly trying to breach the House chamber on January 6. Babbitt had gone through a broken glass door near the Speaker’s Lobby when she was killed. The officer has not been identified, but Trump claims he knows the shooter’s name.

“We know who he is. If that 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. The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!” he said. 

Multiple Republicans have called the killing of Babbitt an extreme use of force. 

“Enough is enough. These attacks are disgusting, wrong, and a wholly unacceptable way to treat the men and women who went through hell to protect our democracy from armed insurrectionists,” Patterson said. He described Trump’s words as a “threat” against Capitol Police and cited other Republicans making similar criticisms, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) previously describing the shooting as an “execution.”

He went on to call on McCarthy to “stand up to the members of his conference and party who have been terrorizing the brave officers that saved the lives of countless workers, staff, journalists and Members on January 6th.”

A select committee in the House is investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, though Republicans have blasted the committee as politically biased, as it only includes two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (Illinois), both of whom are vocal critics of Trump and have publicly placed blame on him for the riot, which followed a DC speech by Trump to supporters where he continued to allege the election had been stolen from him. 

In April, the US attorney’s office for Washington DC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) closed an investigation into Babbitt’s shooting with officials saying they would not pursue charges against the unidentified officer. 

Democrats have suggested that Trump and others who have criticized Babbitt’s shooter have put the officer’s life in “danger.”

“That officer’s life sadly is in danger,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) told MSNBC this week, adding that the shooter is a “hero.” 

If you like this story, share it with a friend!