Ashli Babbitt, an American Patriot Tragically Misled by Trump Hucksters

On Tuesday afternoon, Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt was confident.

A devoted supporter of President Donald Trump, Babbitt, 35, flew from her home in San Diego to rally in Washington, D.C., and support the president’s efforts to overturn his reelection loss.

“Nothing will stop us,” Babbitt tweeted on Tuesday, a day before the rally. “They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours….dark to light!”

A day later, Babbitt was shot and killed by a member of the U.S. Capitol Police during the riot inside the Capitol building. Babbitt was shot as she attempted to breach a House chamber where members of Congress had taken shelter, according to police and video from the scene.

The mayhem at the Capitol ended up delaying the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, and cast a pall over Trump’s final days in office.

Babbitt was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, the Air Force Reserve, and the Air National Guard. Friends and family who have spoken to National Review and other media described her as a “patriot” devoted to America. On Twitter, she said she loved her country “above all.”

But her social-media footprint also paints a picture of a woman who was angry at most government leaders, devoted to Trump, and who had been sucked into a dangerous fantasy world of QAnon and election-fraud conspiracies spun by right-wing hucksters and Trump sycophants.

On several occasions over the last few weeks, Babbitt retweeted messages supporting the unfounded election-fraud conspiracies being peddled by Trump allies Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood. “Lin Wood is telling the truth. About everything – and there’s more to come!” read one.

She retweeted conspiracies trying to link Vice President Mike Pence to Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier charged with sex trafficking teenage girls. She cheered anti-mask protesters

In September she posted a picture of herself on Twitter wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a red, white, and blue logo for QAnon, the wide-ranging conspiracy that contends, among other things, that Trump is fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping “deep state” pedophiles.

When it came to politics in her native California, Babbitt was angry. She supported the effort to recall California governor Gavin Newsom, whom she described as a “commie piece of” human excrement. In November 2018, she posted two videos she took while she was driving where she ranted about the state’s elected leaders, border security, homelessness, and drugs.

“Our economy is going to take an absolute tank because you guys refuse to choose America over your stupid political party,” said Babbitt, who described herself as a libertarian. In the video, she denied that there were massive protests about Trump’s border-security efforts. “What we do have is a massive amount of pissed off people like I am because you guys will not sit down and do your jobs. California is suffering. Our homeless problems is out of control. Our drugs are out of control.”

Mary Conrad said the Babbitt she knew was not a “crazy person,” but rather “a patriot” who was very outgoing. “I can tell you one thing right now, that girl was dedicated to the United States of America,” she said.

Babbitt used to be the sister-in-law of Conrad’s daughter, and Conrad said she got to know Babbitt during family functions and on Facebook. At the time Babbitt was married to her husband, Timothy McEntee, and had taken his last name. They served in the Air Force together. The couple split in 2019 after 14 years of marriage, Timothy McEntee told the Washington Post. Attempts to reach McEntee for comment were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

Babbitt served in the Air Force from 2004 to 2008, and was a senior airman, according to Air Force records. She served in the Air Force Reserve until 2010, and then served in the Air National Guard until 2016.

Conrad described Babbitt as a strong woman who loved her country, believed in Trump, and believed in “what he stood for, right, wrong or indifferent.”

Video from inside the Capitol Wednesday shows Babbitt, draped in a Trump flag, being shot as she attempted to climb through a broken window into the House chamber.

It was almost symbolic that Babbitt “was shot, and laid in a blood puddle with that Trump flag around her neck,” Conrad said.

“She believed in this cause, obviously. She believed that this election was stolen,” Conrad said.

Conrad said she was “actually shocked” that Babbitt was involved in storming the Capitol and “that she stepped over that boundary, because she protected that boundary.”

Conrad said it was clearly wrong for Babbitt and others to storm the Capitol, but she doesn’t think there was any reason that Babbitt should have been shot.

“It should have never been breached. It shouldn’t have,” Conrad said of the Capitol. “But she wasn’t armed.”

The Capitol Police employee who shot Babbitt has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a joint investigation by the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. The employee’s name has not been released.

Police Chief Steven Sund said in a written statement that his officers “responded valiantly when faced with thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions,” and that “these individuals actively attacked . . . officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers.”

Media reports indicate that Babbitt has been living in San Diego with her husband, Aaron Babbitt. Attempts to reach him Wednesday were unsuccessful. He told a San Diego Fox affiliate that Babbitt “loved her country and she was doing what she thought was right to support her country, joining up with like-minded people that also love their president and their country.”