Julie Kelly has a heartbreaking interview with Ashli Babbitt’s mom, Micki Witthoeft, posted over at American Greatness. When you’re up to it, you should read it. Excerpts:
[In reference to (misleading) testimony regarding the death of Officer Brian Sicknick at Pelosi’s J6 Farce]
But there was no moment of silence for Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Air National Guardsman with eight deployments overseas, including to Iraq and Afghanistan, who actually was killed on January 6. There were no tears and table-pounding from crisis-actor cops or emotionally-fragile lawmakers mourning her premature death. Babbitt was just 35.
In fact, no one bothered to mention her name.
Witthoeft, 57, described her oldest child as “determined and strong willed.” A “tomboy” of sorts, Ashli always was up for adventure. While in high school, Ashli decided she wanted to join the military; Witthoeft said she signed a notarized document to allow Ashli to enroll in the Air Force at the age of 17. “September 11 strengthened her conviction to serve,” Witthoeft said.
Ashli graduated from El Capitan High School in Lakeside, California, in 2003 and entered the U.S. Air Force. On her 21st birthday, Ashli sustained serious injuries in an explosion at the Camp Bucca detention facility in Iraq and was airlifted to a hospital in Germany.
Did you know that about her? I knew she was a veteran and that’s about it. If I had only listened to the Corporate Media about her, I might have thought she was just another “QAnon conspiracy theorist.” (I still don’t know what QAnon is, and don’t particularly care given its relative obscurity and lack of influence.) Or, as Keith Olbermann called her, a traitor. (When’s the last time Olbermann sustained a serious injury for his country?) But, even Republicans have been calling her a “criminal” (Sen. Kevin Cramer of ND) and have thanked and hugged the still-unidentified officer who shot her (Sen. Markwayne Mullin, OK).
I guess shooting someone for “criminal” trespass is popular even with Republicans now — but, only if the trespasser is a patriot; we don’t even arrest “mostly peaceful” protestors who burn down businesses and attack officers with lasers and frozen water bottles, let alone shoot them.
This is what’s happening in 21st-century America. Nearly 100 political prisoners are being held in DC jails almost invisible from public knowledge for having entered the “hallowed” halls of Congress without an invitation. They aren’t expected to go to trial until January of next year at the earliest, assuming they don’t fold under the pressure and plead guilty first. The few Republican lawmakers who’ve even taken an interest in overseeing the conditions they’re suffering under have been barred from entry into the jail.
Anyone not angered by this, or at least worried he could be next because of his political views, is either not paying attention, isn’t really conservative enough to draw attention to himself, or has switched sides and decided two plus two really does equal five.
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I know Gaetz et al. are agitating at the DC jail, but has any Republican other than Trump had anything to say about Babbitt? Â One does not have to condone her conduct to speak on her behalf.
Or even the Capitol trespassers who survived the day and rot in jail. They deserve due and expedient process just as much as the Portland, Minneapolis, Kenosha, Chicago . . . rioters.Â
But, Republicans are all over the Cuba dissidents.Â
Americans are being disappeared and their lives destroyed. We should all be worried.
The treatment of the J6 rabble is an excellent test of person’s principles. If you are not offended that they are being denied their Constitutional rights, then you are not as principled as you claim. Many people say they are principled and that they like America, but when the situation is dicey, they drop their principles.  We also see this when people loudly complain about system racism, but then have nothing to say when their paycheck involves slave labor in China. But if you are worried about the J6 rabble and disregard the idea of “driving while black”, maybe you have part-time principles. Everyone deserves their Constitutional rights every time. Â
I am beside myself with worry about the accused and/or charged people, with anger at what happened to Ashli Babbitt, and frustration with the Republicans who are allowing all of this continue to unfold.Â
Thank you for posting this article.Â
It really is horrifying/terrifying.