The Chilling Message of Trump's Embrace of Ashli Babbitt

[Nevilledog]

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Jonathan Chait
@jonathanchait
It's important to track how Trump's rhetoric is moving from avoiding the 1/6 riot to sanctifying it as a holy and righteous uprising

The Chilling Message of Trump’s Embrace of Ashli Babbitt
January 6 is now a heroic uprising to the movement.
nymag.com
5:45 AM · Jul 8, 2021

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/trump-who-shot-ashli-babbitt-january-6-insurrection-riot.html

Last Thursday, Donald Trump announced a new theme, with all his customary blunt-force subtlety. “Who shot Ashli Babbitt?,” he wrote on his official pseudo-presidential stationery. Those four words were the entirety of the message.

Two days later, at his rally in Florida, he said more. “Who shot Ashli Babbitt? We all saw the hand. We saw the gun … You know, if that were on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung. Okay? Now, they don’t want to give the name … It’s a terrible thing, right? Shot. Boom. And it’s a terrible thing.”

And then, speaking Wednesday about his lawsuit challenging his social-media ban, Trump returned to the subject again. Asked about the insurrection, he changed the subject to the terrible people on the other side who were not being charged, and brought up Babbitt once again: “The person that shot Ashli Babbitt. Boom. Right through the head. Just, boom. There was no reason for that. And why isn’t that person being opened up, and why isn’t that being studied?”

Babbitt’s death, while tragic, occurred for a very good reason. The Air Force veteran, who had been fully converted into the most dangerous and fantastical pro-Trump conspiracy theories, had joined the aggressive vanguard of the January 6 insurrection. Babbitt died trying to squeeze through the smashed window of a barricaded door that led to the inner sanctum where members of Congress were hiding from the mob.

*snip*

[hibbing]

1. Who killed her is their new mantra

Now if they can combine CRT with that, bingo!

Peace

[jimfields33]

14. It's still someone killed. Are they at least questioning the shooter?

I’d think that’s the least that should be done. I’m sure all of us want that.

[Crunchy Frog]

18. The shooting was thoroughly investigated over a period of weeks.

Much more than the standard police shooting gets. It was fully justified, as anyone can see who's watched the footage of the actual event.

Don't buy in to the right wing, seditionist, terrorist narratives on this.

[Silent3]

23. Republicans simply want either a talking point, and/or...

...for Trump's vicious mob to be able to make the fully-justified shooter's life hell.

They'll be happy with either outcome.

[Kaleva]

22. TFG's followers have been using this mantra since Jan. It isn't new.

[marble falls]

2. Ashli Babbitt is 45 and the RW's Horst Wiessel.

[David__77]

4. That's the name that occurred to me as well.

…

[marble falls]

6. Dead people with no real background beside a couple of facts are blank slates for fascist legend.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

12. Same here

And I have brought this up before, they never mention Rosanne Borland.

Can't do that though. she was trampled to death by her fellow insurrectionists.

Mr. "Law and Order" who claimed to love law enforcement is embracing criminals who attack and kill policemen now.

And this asshole would happily expose the person who shot Babbitt if he could which would very likely result in another death.

The DOJ needs to stop screwing around and throw this fucker in jail. He is a real and dangerous threat to our nation.

[ZonkerHarris]

3. If Republicans really wanted to know who shot her they could have voted for an investigation into

the incident, but they did not because they don't care.

[GoodRaisin]

5. So now Trump is going to leverage a death he caused in a cloak of lies

to feed red meat to his base and raise money for himself.

Yeah, I believe he is "evil as Hitler". Every bit of it.

I wish the Babbitt family would turn around and sue him for responsibility in her death.

[Kaleva]

24. TFG isn't leading on this. He's following his supporters.

He's repeating what his supporters have been saying since Janurary.

[Skittles]

7. HE KILLED HER

his deplorable actions led to the events of Jan 6


FUCK THAT MURDEROUS TRAITOR

[Thomas Hurt]

8. conservative SOP...look at the Alamo, as an example.

[ZZenith]

9. What is the world coming to if you can't hold a riot at the U.S. Capitol without getting shot at?!

I mean…. Really!

[smirkymonkey]

20. It's so unfair!

Those people were unfairly persecuted and should SUE!

[IcyPeas]

10. SHE WAS SHOT IN THE SHOULDER... not the head..... trump lies

The bullet struck Babbitt in the left shoulder, and she later died from her wounds at Washington Hospital Center

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/987425312/officer-cleared-in-the-shooting-of-ashli-babbitt-during-capitol-riot

[spanone]

11. he knows 'shot in the head' gets a bigger headline.

he's a disgusting pos

[Under The Radar]

13. But then there is this- his response after the riot

…where throws the rioters under the bus.

[Delphinus]

15. He immediately

deployed the National Guard? I don't remember it that way.

[Boomerproud]

16. The way he speaks sets my teeth on edge.

Boom! WTH? My 6 year old great-nephew constructs sentences better than that.

[smirkymonkey]

21. Ugh! I so fucking hate that whispery, sing-songy voice he uses.

It's like he thinks it makes him sound more intelligent and sincere or something, but it's exactly the opposite. His cult falls for it though. I'm not even going to say what it makes me feel like doing.

Ivanka does the same thing. They are all such a bunch of low-rent phonies.

[kentuck]

17. The parents of Ashli Babbitt should understand...

...that their daughter would not have been in the Capitol, if not for Donald Trump.

If anyone is to blame, it is he.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Ashli Babbitt was a terrorist who was breaking the law