Ashli Babbitt (Pic credit: AP)
The US Air Force has decided to extend military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and Donald Trump supporter who was shot dead while storming the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Babbitt, 35, was killed as she attempted to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby, where lawmakers were being evacuated. She was draped in a Trump campaign flag at the time. A letter dated August 15 from under secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier to Babbitt’s family reversed an earlier denial of the request for honors. “After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect,” Lohmeier wrote. He later described the decision as “long overdue” in a post on X, sharing a message from a conservative legal group that had campaigned on the family’s behalf. The Air Force confirmed the move, saying military funeral honors had been offered to Babbitt’s family after a “review of the circumstances.” Lohmeier also invited the family to meet him at the Pentagon. Babbitt has become a rallying figure for sections of the Republican Party, with her death often invoked as evidence of alleged government overreach. Her family reached a settlement of nearly $5 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the government. Babbitt served four years on active duty from 2004 to 2008 before joining the Air Force Reserves and later the Air National Guard, where she remained until 2016. She was deployed to Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006, and the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014. She was a member of the 113th Security Forces Squadron, 113th Wing, DC Air National Guard.
