The mother of Ashli Babbitt revealed this week that when she called the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., office after her daughter was shot and killed during the Jan. 6 US Capitol uprising, she was told that Feinstein didn’t have time for her.
The first time Micki Witthoeft, Babbitt’s mother, called Feinstein’s office, a staffer hung up on her and insisted he did not know who Babbitt was.
The second time she called, the same staffer answered, but Witthoeft insisted that she speak to Feinstein for just two minutes.
“Ma’am, I am sorry for your unfortunate situation but if your daughter hadn’t stormed the Capitol, she wouldn’t have been shot,” Witthoeft recalls the staffer telling her, according to American Greatness. “Dianne Feinstein will never have two minutes for you.”
Witthoeft said it has been devastating to see the way the media has treated her daughter, making her out to be a traitor when she and the other protesters present at the Capitol that day were just “true patriots doing what [former president Donald Trump] told them to do. They believed this was a stolen election.”
To this day, Witthoeft said, she still does not know exactly who shot her daughter. The federal government has thus far refused to identify which officer fired the fatal shot.
Conservative media outlets, including RealClear Investigations, have identified the killer as Capitol Police Lt. Mike Byrd.
Witthoeft said it has been even more upsetting to see sitting Republicans defend the government’s silence.
For example, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, responded to a question from a caller during a radio interview this week claiming Babbitt was a “criminal.”
“What would be the purpose of releasing that officer’s name?” Cramer asked the caller. “What do you need to know the officer’s name for?”
Correct. Ashli Babbitt was a criminal – and a terrorist. It is sadly surprising to see a Republican Senator willing to acknowledge this literal truth. https://t.co/mgMVxssrem
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 28, 2021
Responses like Cramer’s are “infuriating,” Witthoeft said.
“She was there exercising her First Amendment rights. This country was founded on brave men and women and I feel like that’s what our patriots were doing,” she said.
