WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is defending a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the U.S. House chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying she was “executed.”
At a House hearing on what went wrong that day, Gosar questioned former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen about the death of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was part of the mob that attacked the Capitol.
Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a broken window while lawmakers were trapped inside.
The Department of Justice has decided not to charge the police officer who shot Babbitt. The officer’s name hasn’t been disclosed. Federal prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.”
Gosar on Wednesday asked Rosen why Babbitt was “executed” and asked the name of the officer who killed her. Gosar called Babbitt “a young lady, a veteran, wrapped in an American flag that was killed in the U.S. Capitol.”
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot.
The House impeached Trump for telling his supporters that day to “fight like hell” to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump.
