The night after Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that the death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was not investigated, the Fox host suggested that Babbitt was shot merely because she had the “wrong politics.”
Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer as she attempted to breach the Speaker’s Lobby amid the violent attempted insurrection.
Carlson’s blatantly misleading characterization of her death occurred during an interview Friday with Babbitt’s widower, Aaron. Babbitt first mentioned how members of the House Jan. 6 committee didn’t bring up his wife’s death during Thursday’s hearing, and how committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-MI) has praised Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot Babbitt and who was cleared of any wrongdoing. In response, Carlson was sympathetic.
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“To shoot an unarmed woman is so immoral and [it is] so dishonorable for a man to do that. How could you ever encourage that?” Carlson said. “If you encourage that, aren’t you really saying anyone who disagrees with me should be killed?”
Carlson, who has essentially trademarked making overstatements like this in place of arguments, repeated a version of this intellectually dishonest comment at the conclusion of the interview.
“Well it’ll be interesting to have members of Congress—Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Lindsey Graham—come on and explain how many other unarmed women should be shot to death because they have the wrong politics,” he said.
Since her death, Babbitt has been made out to be a martyr of sorts in right-wing circles. Former President Donald Trump, for instance, paid tribute to her in a video message that was played at a Texas Loves Ashli Babbitt rally last October. Also, a group of Pennsylvania truckers who were traveling to Washington, D.C. this February to protest COVID restrictions and critical race theory, among other things, said they’d call for “justice” over her death.
