Ashli Babbitt's Mom Can't Stop Fantasizing About Lynching The Black Cop Who Killed Her
Your insurrectionist daughter was solely responsible for her death, ma'am.
Ashli Babbitt tried to break into the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Capitol Police clearly asked her to stop multiple times, and when she refused to comply, Lieutenant Michael Byrd shot her in the shoulder. She later died from her injuries.
If it’s too difficult for Babbitt’s loved ones to fault her for her own choices that led to her death, they could at least blame Donald Trump, who both summoned and incited the mob that attacked the Capitol. Instead, they choose to blame Nancy Pelosi and Michael Byrd. MAGA might talk a lot about “back the blue,” but Byrd is Black.
Last week, Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft, threatened Pelosi and Byrd with an old-fashioned lynching. It was reported last month that Byrd is up for promotion to captain so perhaps that set off Witthoeft’s homicidal zeal.
Trigger warning for this entire thing:
WITTHOEFT: Being an equal opportunity rope swinger, I think Nancy Pelosi belongs at the end of a rope. Again these are not threats because I don’t want to get hit with seditious conspiracy or some other charge. So while you’re writing the indictment FBI, get that straight. I said they deserve it, not that I’m going to do it. I know that someday there will be justice, but I’m not a vigilante, and I don’t plan on stringing Nancy Pelosi or [Capitol Police Officer] Michael Byrd up. So I will have to wait for God to give them their justice, or the American people. Because it’s within our power.
There is a high threshold for criminal incitement of violence. Otherwise, the First Amendment lets Witthoeft make “metaphorical,” mafioso-style death threats against Pelosi and Byrd. And this isn’t the first time. It’s a regular part of her insurrectionist standup routine.
From a non-supervillain perspective, of course, Pelosi and Byrd are the actual victims here. Trump’s mob targeted Pelosi for death on January 6, and Byrd, who’s also an Air Force veteran, received hundreds of death threats after right-wing media outlets doxxed him.
Trump personally attacked Byrd at rallies, just months after January 6 and when Capitol rioter Garret Miller was on record as wanting to “lynch” the officer.
From Law & Crime:
“He became consumed with [Ashli Babbit’s] death and circulated photographs on Facebook of an African-American police officer that he believed was responsible for her death,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth C. Kelley wrote in a 16-page legal brief on Monday. “Miller threatened to kill that officer, stating that he wanted to ‘hug his neck with a nice rope’ and that ‘he will swing.’ He also said that the officer deserved to die and that ‘it’s huntin season.'”
“His fixation with hunting down and hanging a USCP officer is extremely concerning,” prosecutors added of Miller.
Witthoeft might insist she doesn’t personally plan to murder Pelosi and Byrd, but she makes clear that she believes they deserve it and “someday there will be justice.” She can’t mean “justice” in any legal sense, as neither Byrd nor Pelosi committed any actual crimes. Byrd was found to have acted lawfully and “within Department policy” and “potentially saved Members [of Congress] and staff from serious injury and possible death.”
Last May, at a pity party rally for Capitol rioters, Witthoeft was arrested and charged with simple assault and destruction of property after allegedly attacking a counter-protester. She was also arrested in January when protesting on the second anniversary of the Capitol attack. She remains free.
Ashli Babbitt died while committing a serious crime against the US government. Had she survived her injuries, she’d likely be serving hard time along with hundreds of other rioters whose names you don’t know. Instead of mourning her daughter and lamenting her bad choices, Witthoeft has chosen to lash out at Pelosi and Byrd. That’s pathetic but true to MAGA form.
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Unrelated, but not at all an idiot.
"Oh my God. John Fetterman just humiliated Republicans over their impeachment threat."
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I just get the feeling that her daughter dying a high-profile death is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. She can’t get enough attention and this event has given her a never ending stream of it. Not trying to be apathetic. She lost her daughter. I just have relatives who resemble her in so many ways and even one whose daughter died recently. She’s become a professional martyr/grieving parent. The truth is that she was contributing a major portion of the circumstances that resulted in her death. She won’t see it. And now she has the ultimate excuse to drain everyone’s energy and demand special treatment. Won’t you all be shocked to know that she’s a wealthy white MAGAt?!