The Republican party continues to fracture after House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) defended the police officer who shot and killed insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt during the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And by doing so, he inadvertently put himself in the crosshairs of former president Donald Trump, who fired back hours later.
McCarthy made the remarks on Thursday afternoon while speaking with reporters who asked about MAGA Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who claimed Babbitt was “murdered” during a House committee meeting earlier in the week. Greene had made the comments while comparing Babbitt to Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten by police officers in Memphis on Jan. 7.
“I think that the judge and the jury and the trial needs to work out what happened there, but I share that with you. But I’d like to also point something that I’d hope you share with me,” Greene said on Tuesday. “There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on Jan. 6, Ashli Babbitt. And Ashli Babbitt has, there’s never been a trial. As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her and no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue.”
Perhaps Congress hasn’t addressed the issue because Babbitt was killed while being ordered to stay back by Capitol Police, as she attempted to breach the House chamber by climbing through the glass panel of a door that had been smashed. Five total people died that day, and four police officers who responded to the scene later died by suicide.
As such, when asked whether he sided with Green or whether he thought the police officer was doing his job, McCarty responded: “I think the police officer did his job.”
This obviously didn’t sit well with Trump, who is reportedly considering Greene on the short list as his 2024 running mate.
“I totally disagree with the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, in that the Police Officer ‘Thug,’ who has had a very checkered past to begin with, was not just ‘doing his job’ when he shot and killed Great Patriot Ashli Babbitt at point blank range,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday night.
“Despite trying to keep him anonymous, shielded, and protected, this MISFIT proudly showed up on NBC Fake Nightly News ‘bragging’ about the killing. He was not a hero but a COWARD, who wanted to show how tough he was,” he continued, before all-caps adding: “ASHLI BABBITT WAS MURDERED!!!”
It seems as though Trump’s social media postings have gotten even more erratic and unhinged lately, amid rumblings that the majority of Republicans aren’t exactly looking for a do-over of his administration, not to mention his mounting legal woes. Meanwhile, all we can do is grab the popcorn and sit back and watch the Republicans turn on themselves.
