Ashli Babbitt's Mom Torches Pelosi over Capitol Riot: 'This Isn't Your Playhouse'
'I’m here because Americans do have the right to protest'
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Ashli Babbitt's mother stood on the Capitol steps on Thursday declaring her late daughter, who was fatally shot during the Jan. 6 riot, was exercising a legitimate right to protest when she was killed by a US Capitol police officer.
Micki Witthoeft shed tears while remembering the first anniversary of her daughter's death.
“My daughter was an amazing, energetic, independent, powerful woman," she said.
"I miss her every day."
“I’m here because Americans do have the right to protest, it’s your right as an American citizen to protest,” she continued.
36-year-old Air Force veteran Babbit was shot by US Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd after trying to enter a broken window to enter the Speaker’s Lobby.
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Witthoeft also called for the 14,0000 hours of video captured on security cameras.
“I would like to say to [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, this is not your playhouse. These surveillance cameras were put up to capture what happened that day, and the American people have the right to see the 14,000 hours of footage,” she said.
“You’re not the queen, Nancy Pelosi, this is America’s 14,000 hours of missing footage, and we have a right to see it.”
“My daughter was a proud American patriot,” Witthoeft said.
“She served this country her whole adult life.
"She loved God, America, and loved her family.”
“She came to DC to hear Donald Trump speak about a stolen election, and little did we know that would be the last time she heard anybody speak,” the grieving mom said.
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Byrd was exonerated of any wrongdoing in Babbitt’s death last year.
Byrd said he was “doing my job,” saying he viewed Babbitt as a threat to lawmakers.
“I was very afraid,” Byrd told anchor Lester Holt.
“I’m hearing about the breaches of different barricaded areas, officers being overrun, officers being down.”
Last year, Washington D.C. watchdog group Judicial Watch said Babbit’s death was “unjustified” after receiving first-hand evidence.
As Neon Nettle reported at the time:
The organization says the evidence consisted of new audio, video footage, and photo records and was obtained from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
Judicial Watch said in a statement that the evidence includes a cellphone video of the shooting itself, as well as a short police interview of the shooter, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officer, Lt. Michael Byrd.35-year-old Babbitt was among the crowd that breached the Capitol on January 6.
Capitol Police and prosecutors claim that releasing footage could threaten the security of the building.
A federal judge Beryl Howell ruled in September that the “public has an interest in understanding the conduct underlying the charges in these cases” and ordered footage to be released in the trial of protester Eric Torrens of Tennessee.
“The Capitol police operate with impunity, which I did not know until my daughter was publicly executed,” Witthoeft said.
“I think most of America does not know the Capitol police department is not subject to transparency – they are another arm of Congress and don’t answer to an external review like every other police department in this country,” she said.
