A newly resurfaced video is raising eyebrows across conservative circles after comments from Sen. Markwayne Mullin, President Trump’s latest pick to head the Department of Homeland Security after removing Kristi Noem, praising and even hugging Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt.
Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and Trump supporter, was gunned down in cold blood on January 6, 2021, while peacefully protesting.
She was unarmed, posing no threat, yet Byrd fired a single shot that ended her life as she attempted to climb through a broken window in the Capitol.
But according to Mullin, Byrd is the real victim here! In an interview onC-SPAN from July 2021, six months after Babbitt was murdered, Mullin recounts the moments after the shooting.
“After it happened, he came over. He was physically and emotionally distraught. I actually gave him a hug and I said, ‘sir, you did what you had to do.'” Mullin went even further, telling investigators that he heard Byrd issue a warning before firing, a claim debunked by video evidence showing no such warning was given.
He told media outlets that Byrd “didn’t have a choice” and that his shot “saved people’s lives.”
Sen. Mullin:I guarantee you—I don’t know for a fact, but I guarantee you—he’s never had to pull his weapon in a manner like that before. He was the last person in the world who ever wanted to use force like that; he wasn’t wanting to do that.
I know for a fact because, after it happened, he came over and was physically and emotionally distraught, and I actually gave him a hug. And I said, “Sir, you did what you had to do.” And I mean that.
Unfortunately, for the young lady, her family’s life has changed. It was an unfortunate situation where she lost her life, and some people lost their loved ones.
But the lieutenant’s life has also changed, too, because if it’s the first time you’ve ever had to use lethal force, that doesn’t ever leave you.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
