In the wake of Donald Trump's recent rallies in Florida and Ohio, Josh Marshall wrote:
[Trump] began to suggest or demand (the ambiguity is a central feature of all Trump incitement) the lynching of the Capitol Police officer who shot insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt.
“By the way, who shot Ashli Babbitt? Who shot Ashli Babbitt? We all saw the hand. We saw the gun ... Now they don’t want to give the name, but people know the name. People know where he came from. Now if that were on the other side, the person who did the shooting would be strung up and hung. Now they don’t want to give the name. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? It’s got to be released.”
Making a martyr of Babbitt, who was shot trying to rush the Speaker’s Lobby while members of Congress were being evacuated, has become a staple on the far-right since January 6th. Rep. Paul Gosar, who has become notorious for his work with various white supremacist advocates, claimed Babbitt had been “executed” by an officer who had been “lying in wait” for her while questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Trump says all sorts of wild things. Given the response he got, it seems highly likely this will become a staple of his rally speeches going forward.
It's now clear to me why the right thinks "Who shot Ashli Babbitt?" is an especially powerful rallying cry: Right-wingers think the Capitol Police officer who shot her is Black.
As a post at Gateway Pundit notes, the alleged shooter was nearly ID'd on Tucker Carlson's show last month:
Ashli Babbitt‘s husband Aaron Babbitt and Attorney Terrell Roberts joined Tucker Carlson in mid-June to discuss the continued challenges they have had getting any information on her death or the identity of her government-employed killer.
During the discussion, Tucker Carlson asked Attorney Roberts about the report that Ashli’s shooter also left his loaded gun in a US Capitol restroom
Tucker Carlson: Mr. Roberts, let me ask you, there are reports online, that’s incredible I don’t know if they’re true, that the Capitol Hill police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, I’m not going to mention the name, was the same officer that left his loaded handgun in a public men’s room on the Capitol. Do you believe that is the officer, it seems like a very reckless person, who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on January 6th?
Attorney Terrell Roberts: That’s my belief. That’s my belief.
That made it fairly easy to connect the dots. Here's a 2019 Roll Call story about the incident in which the officer in question left an unattended gun in a bathroom.
But the Gateway Pundit post, which was published this morning, provides the name of the alleged shooter. I won't repeat it. If you want to see the name, go to the link, or go to this April 14 post at a site called Non Veni Pacem, which wears its racism on its sleeve -- its headline is:
Black officer who murdered Ashli Babbitt, unarmed white female, will not be charged with any crime
Both posts are illustrated with photos of the officer. I suspect that those photos are about to become ubiquitous in the right-wing media, and perhaps in the mainstream media as well.
Josh Marshall suspects that Trump wants a "lynching." Digby has a post on the subject titled "Oiling Up the Guillotine."
It's only a matter of time before this name is spoken on Fox News during prime time, and by one or more Republicans in Congress. This is going to get ugly.
Published with permission of No More Mr Nice Blog
