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Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was gunned down Wednesday in the riot in the halls of the Capitol, apparently by the Capitol Police, was a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and a supporter and promoter of many radical conservative activists though known. as leaders of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, according to his social media profiles.
Babbitt, 35, had come to Washington to protest Trump’s electoral defeat, his brother-in-law Justin Jackson told KNSD-TV, a San Diego station owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
Babbitt was an Air Force veteran who was a decorated security forces controller and made several tours of the Middle East from 2004 to 2016, according to Air Force records.
She also owned a pool service and a supply business with her husband, according to her now-deleted Facebook page.
“Ashli was both loyal and extremely passionate about what she believed in,” Jackson said. “She loved this country and felt honored to have served in our armed forces. Please keep his family in your thoughts and respect his privacy during this time. “
Washington Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed wednesday evening that Capitol police shot and killed a person who entered the building, but he did not name the person.
Although some members of his family have expressed confusion over why Babbitt would break into the Capitol, his social media posts have provided insight into possible motivations.
Using the CommonAshSense handle, Babbitt’s Twitter account was almost singularly focused on radical conservative topics and conspiracy theories. Among other fringe beliefs, she tweeted about the pizzagate, a viral disinformation campaign that falsely claimed that a child abuse ring was operated by Democrats from a Washington pizzeria.
Babbitt was a staunch Fox News watcher, according to thousands of tweets to Fox News hosts, but she also engaged on social media with conspiracy news site InfoWars. In 2020, Babbitt started tweeting with QAnon accounts and using QAnon hashtags. QAnon conspiracy theorists subscribe to a false belief that top Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are ritually sacrificing children and Trump is fighting to stop him. Supporters of QAnon have reportedly committed violent real-world crimes, including murder, and the FBI has called it a potential domestic terrorist threat in 2019.
Prominent figures in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, including L. Lin Wood, the pro-Trump lawyer behind several unsuccessful lawsuits aimed at overturning the election results, have also been behind numerous claims. the craziest, shared by the president, that the election was somehow stolen.
Babbitt’s latest tweets included a retweet de Wood, in a call saying “Mike Pence @ vp @Mike_Pence must resign and then be charged with TREASON” and “Chief Justice John Roberts must resign.” Wood was suspended from Twitter on Wednesday.
The day before the rally, she tweeted: “Nothing’s gonna stop us … they can try and try, but the storm is here and it’s coming down to DC in less than 24 hours … dark to light!”
The Storm is a reference to a QAnon fantasy in which Trump will punish Democrats and the Hollywood elite for their alleged wrongdoing.
On forums and platforms like Talk, where followers have fled after being banned on Twitter and Facebook, QAnon followers have claimed that Babbitt’s death was rigged and designed as a “false flag” by the self- saying Deep State.
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