Commentary

I know, I know … birds have craws, not humans, but you know what I mean when I use it don’t you?  It describes an annoyance, irritation or even hard feelings.

While we await the Department of Justice decision on the criminal charges against former President Trump brought forth by the House Select Committee on January 6, a few things stick in my craw.

The Killing of Ashli Babbitt

As recent as the awards ceremony on the January 6, anniversary of the breaching of our nation’s Capitol, during which President Biden presided over the presentation of 12 Presidential Citizen Medals to first responders, deaths of law enforcement officers that day were again mispresented.

In the days and weeks following the riot, five police officers who served at the Capitol on January 6 died, two by suicide, but none on that day.

One officer, Brian Sicknick, was wrongly remembered as the “hero who died defending the U.S. Capitol,” in the Washington Post, and in the haste of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi to not let a crisis go to waste, arranged a memorial service for Sicknick. One that would be expected for a deceased president, including lying in state in the Rotunda.

While Schumer tearfully noted that Sicknick’s mother attended the same Brooklyn high school as he did decades earlier, Sen. Mitch McConnell misspoke when referring to Sicknick lying in honor “under the dome of the institution he swore to defend and died defending.”  Though there were claims that he was killed by a fire extinguisher hit to his head, he died the next day of natural causes.

Regular readers may recall that Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was killed by police Lieutenant Michael Byrd, who according to the Capitol Police’s own investigation, used deadly force, believing human life, including his own, was in danger of serious physical injury.

Having witnessed a video taken at the time of the shooting, there were at least three armed Swat team members in the hallway at her side just outside the door she was attempting to breach.  I contend that the shooting was uncalled for.

Three other people, all supporters of former President Trump, did die that day, two by natural causes, and one determined to be by an accidental overdose.

Last week, two stories heightened my interest in again surfacing the uncalled for killing of Babbitt.

 After an exhaustive effort to obtain information on the whereabouts of Lieutenant Byrd, as he was being shielded from the media by the government, Judicial Watch revealed that he was housed in a “Distinguished Visitor Suite at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, typically reserved for officers of the rank of Brigadier General or higher.  His lodging, at a rate of $161 to $185 during his January 6, 2021 to January 28, 2022, was paid for by the Capitol Police.

The same day, Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, was detained near the Capitol and charged with violating two Capitol traffic regulations.  In an attempt to honor her daughter, her group had obstructed traffic and ignored requests to stay on the sidewalk.  She did not have a permit to demonstrate.

Pelosi’s Role in Capitol Security

“If she’d done her job,” writes Virginia Taft in PJ Media of then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “there would have been no riot, no deaths of Trump supporters, no show trials, and no political prisoners in solitary confinement in a D.C. gulag for two years awaiting trial.

Pelosi and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser both ignored threat assessments by federal authorities and wanted to avoid the optics of a Capitol building surrounded by National Guard troops.

Pelosi’s office “was heavily involved in planning and decision-making” before the ballot certification event, and “micromanaged the Sergeant of Arms” according to documents that have come to light.

While organizing the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, Pelosi obviously struck a deal to not be part of the probe of that day, reports Taft.

Curiously, lost in the effort to recommend criminal charges against Trump for the riot, is the resignation of the House and Senate sergeant at arms and Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

What’s Next?

Unlike Pelolsi’s partisan Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has promised to form an investigative committee representing both parties to properly conduct an inquiry into January 6, that is sure to include security measures not taken.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.