Talking Points Memo: “‘Who killed Ashli Babbitt?’ It’s a question that, in recent weeks, has become a mainstream rallying cry among the MAGA crew after growing in volume for months on the far-right fringes. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has asked it repeatedly, as has former President Trump himself. But the thing is, they think they already know. They have a specific individual in mind, a Capitol police officer that they believe to be the culprit in the killing. He happens to be a black man. It’s a detail that, once known, places the calls for the officer to be exposed and punished in a new light. The ensuing witch hunt takes on a racial tinge, casting Babbitt as a defenseless white woman killed by a black man. And it’s a context that has allowed Trump and others to blow the dog whistle as loud as possible. He venerated Babbitt as ‘an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman,’ adding, ‘if that were on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung.'”

“Babbitt was shot and killed on Jan. 6 after trying to break through a window into the House Speaker’s Lobby, where members of Congress were sheltering and continuing to evacuate. In an appearance with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo last week, Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA director, pointed to a story by Paul Sperry, a reporter with RealClearInvestigations, that attempted to identify the officer in question. The same person had been labeled as the culprit by right-wing blogs such as the Gateway Pundit weeks before. Officials have not publicly released or confirmed the identity of the officer who shot Babbitt; TPM has not confirmed the officer’s identity. And while that crucial fact hasn’t been confirmed, some far-right groups have already satisfied themselves that they know who it is, and are using that to build out a palace of grievance over her death.”