Last Updated on May 11, 2023
During Wednesday night’s CNN town hall in New Hampshire, President Trump called out the “thug” Capitol Police officer who shot and killed unarmed demonstrator Ashli Babbitt inside the US Capitol during the January 6th, 2021 protests against election fraud and the certification of contested election results.
As CNN host Kaitlan Collins tried to reinforce the CNN-DNC narrative of the January 6th demonstrations while ignoring the murder of Ashli Babbitt, President Trump called out Michael Byrd, the capitol cop who shot and killed Babbitt at point-blank range, as a “thug” who went on TV to “brag” about murdering an unarmed patriot.
“A person named Ashli Babbitt was killed,” President Trump said. “You know what? She was killed. And she shouldn’t have been killed.”
“And that thug that killed her, there was no reason to shoot her at blank range. Cold, blank range they shot her. And she was a good person. She was a patriot. There was no reason…and he went on television to brag about the fact that he killed her.”
“The officer was not bragging about the fact that he killed her,” Collins interjected, referring to the television interview with Michael Byrd that was cited by President Trump.
Contrary to Collins’ claim that Byrd “was not bragging”, during his television interview with NBC News, Byrd boasted, among other things, that he “saved countless lives” by shooting and killing Ashli Babbitt, who was unarmed and surrounded by armed members of law enforcement when she peered through a window, only to be shot by Byrd, at, as President Trump called it, “cold, blank range.”
Watch President Trump call out the Capitol Police “thug” in the video clip below:
"A person named Ashli Babbitt was killed. She shouldn't have been killed, and that thug who killed her there was no reason to shoot her." – President Trump on the murder of Ashli Babbitt
So true!
— Alex Bruesewitz
(@alexbruesewitz) May 11, 2023
The back and forth with Collins over the killing of Ashli Babbitt was just one of the numerous times that President Trump fought back against the host’s blatant partisan hackery during the CNN town hall, in the aftermath of which, Collins has been slammed for behaving as if she was there to debate Trump, not facilitate a town hall event.
At one point in the town hall, as Collins badgered and interrupted Trump, incorrectly trying to fact-check his statements in real-time, the 45th President told her that she is “a nasty person,” much to the approval of the live audience.