When MAGA enthusiast Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a police officer during the January 6 World War White People attack on the U.S. Capitol, conservatives across America proved that if they have nothing else, they have the nerve. Ex-President Donald Trump, pundits for Republicans OnlyFans network Fox News and other right-wingers all immediately jumped on the Babbitt bandwagon.
Source: NBC News / Fair Use
All of a sudden team “Blue Lives Matter” was condemning the officer as a “murderer” and the rioter became a martyr because riots are suddenly great again as long as they’re being carried out by idiot Caucasians looking to cancel democracy and not Black Lives Matter advocates looking to cancel systemic racism.
Anyway, the Capitol cop who shot Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd, has spoken out about the riot and the shooting in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
“I know that day I saved countless lives,” Byrd said in the interview. “I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job.”
Byrd—who was cleared of all wrongdoing in the shooting earlier this year—explained to NBC that during the Rage Against the Voting Machines at the Capitol, 60 to 80 House members and staffers were hiding out in an area of the building he and other officers had barricaded with furniture in order to protect them from the mob.
“Once we barricaded the doors, we were essentially trapped where we were,” he said. “There was no way to retreat. No other way to get out. If they get through that door, they’re into the House chamber and upon the members of Congress.”
Byrd said Babbitt and other rioters were smashing the glass doors in an effort to break into the area he was guarding—which can be seen in video footage of the shooting—but because of the barricade, “It was impossible for me to see what was on the other side.”
What he said he could see was Babbitt trying to climb through the broken glass.
“I could not fully see her hands or what was in the backpack or what the intentions are,” Byrd said. “But they had shown violence leading up to that point.”
Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
He also said he shouted at Babbitt and others several times to back away from the area, but they didn’t comply. (Sound familiar?)
“I tried to wait as long as I could,” he told Holt. “I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”
Source: NBC News / Fair Use
This, of course, is a departure from claims made by Terry Roberts, an attorney representing Babbit’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit, who described the shooting as an “ambush” and said Babbitt was shot without warning.
But again, in any other situation where a cop said they had to shoot because their victim wouldn’t comply with their orders, caucasity-infused conservatives would have no issue taking that at face value.
And none of those unarmed Black people who were shot even attempted to overthrow the government.
Go figure.