Who was Ashli Babbitt? Trump vows to ‘look into’ MAGA supporter’s shooting death on Jan 6

Trump pledges to ‘look into’ the killing of Ashli Babbitt

“I’m a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, okay, and Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she was innocently standing there – they even say, trying to sort of hold back the crowd,” Trump told host Greg Kelly.

Babbitt was a 35-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by an officer while trying to climb through a broken door barricaded by officers during the Jan. 6 riot when MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol building, seeking to overturn Trump’s defeat against Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Last year, Babbitt’s family filed a $30 million wrongful death suit against the government. During Tuesday’s interview, Kelly pressed Trump on the issue, saying that the Department of Justice “is opposing that lawsuit.” However, the president replied with, “You’re telling me that for the first time. I haven’t heard that.”

“And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to look into that; I did not know that,” Trump further said of Babbitt’s death before teasing his plans for financial compensation of the Jan. 6 defendants who, according to him, were “very unfairly” imprisoned by the Biden administration.

Just hours after being sworn in on January 20, Trump pardoned 1,500 defendants charged with crimes related to the riot. “Well, there’s a lot of talk about that. A lot of people that are in government now talk about it, because a lot of people in government really like that group of people,” the commander-in-chief said.

“They were patriots, as far as I was concerned,” he went on, adding, “A group of people went down there, peacefully and patriotically, remember that.” Trump also noted that his supporters involved in the Jan. 6 riot “are incredible people.” “They were treated so unfairly, so horribly. Some of them didn’t even go into the building,” the president added.