Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic effort to put the upper chamber on record opposing the Trump administration’s decision to grant military funeral honors to Air Force veteran and Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., went to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to request what’s known as “unanimous consent” to pass a resolution that would have stated the Senate believes Babbitt is not eligible for military funeral honors.
But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., objected to Gallego’s request, thereby blocking the resolution from passing.
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“Ashli Babbit was a traitor,” Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on the Senate floor. “She didn’t die protecting our country. She died trying to tear it down.
“Military honors are sacred,” he continued. “They are reserved for the men and women who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the rule of law, and actually live up to it. To give them to Babbitt would be a spit in the face to all of them and to every veteran who died defending this country.”
In objecting to Gallego’s request, Tuberville argued Babbitt “earned these funeral honors through her service to this nation.”
“This resolution is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to strip away the earned honors of a veteran who deployed seven times during her many years in the United States Air Force,” Tuberville said. “Ashli Babbitt was never charged with or convicted of a crime. She has never been found guilty of anything.”
Babbitt was part of a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn former President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
She was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a shattered window that leads to the Speaker’s Lobby, a restricted hallway just outside the House floor. At the time, lawmakers were barricaded inside the chamber as they tried to find a way to evacuate.
The officer who shot Babbitt was cleared of any wrongdoing, but Babbitt’s supporters have cast her as a martyr.
Babbitt, who served in the Air Force for about 12 years in a combination of active-duty and reserve duty, was initially denied military funeral honors in a 2021 decision by the Air Force.
But last month, the service confirmed that it had reversed its earlier decision and granted her funeral honors. The reversal was first revealed by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group representing Babbitt’s family.
The funeral honors decision came after the Trump administration also paid her family about $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Broadly, the Trump administration has worked to rewrite the history of Jan. 6., including pardoning nearly all those convicted or charged with a crime for their actions that day.
Gallego, who was a representative during the Jan. 6 attack, was one of the lawmakers barricaded inside the House chamber as the mob Babbitt was part of closed in on the room. He has spoken about how his Marine training helped him take the lead in directing lawmakers to evacuate and instructing them how to put on masks to protect against chemical attacks.
The resolution Gallego filed Wednesday would have formally stated that the Senate believes “Ashli Babbitt’s actions on January 6, 2021, constitute disqualifying conduct under section 985 of Title 10, United States Code; the rendering of military funeral honors to her would bring discredit upon the Air Force; and she is not eligible for such honors.”
The section of U.S. Code cited in the resolution disqualifies veterans from military funeral honors if they are convicted of a capital crime, were found to have committed a capital crime but can’t be convicted because they died, or died in circumstances that “would bring discredit upon the person’s service.”
Gallego’s resolution also would have said the Senate “rejects efforts to glorify or legitimize the actions of those who sought to overturn the Constitution of the United States.”
Related: Jan. 6 Rioter Fatally Shot by Police Approved for Military Funeral Honors by Air Force
