Retired general rains hell on 'obscene' Ashli Babbitt military honor plan

Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by Capitol Police during the Jan. 6 Captal riot, is now set to receive full military funeral honors, a decision that has left one retired general livid, and condemning the move as “obscene.”

“I am infuriated that the Air Force plans to grant military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt,” wrote Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling in an op-ed published Saturday in The Bulwark. “She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it.”

Hertling, whose active duty service spanned from 1975 to 2013, recounted his own history of swearing his oath to defend the Constitution, done many times throughout his career. Babbitt, having served in the Air Force for 12 years, and was deployed at least eight times, would have taken that same oath.

Hertling went on to recall his time serving in Iraq, with one memory in particarly standing out to him: the death of his colleague, a “young soldier,” who died by suicide bomber while standing at his post at a military base entry gate.

“The soldier died at his post, saving lives by giving his own; that is service, that is sacrifice,” Hertling wrote.

“...(Babbitt) was not protecting lives at a gate in Iraq; she was forcing her way through windows in the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power, one of the most sacred traditions of our Republic. To pretend that her death deserves the same recognition as the young soldier at the gate is obscene. It is a betrayal of the oath she once swore and a desecration of the sacrifice made by so many who kept faith with theirs.”

Babbitt has become something of a martyr for the MAGA movement, including for President Donald Trump himself, who called the Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt – Lt. Michael Byrd – a “thug.” Other MAGA-aligned figures have also condemned her shooting.

The military funeral honors for Babbitt were previously denied under the Biden administration, a decision that Air Force Secretary Matthew Lohmeier, appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate last month, called an “incorrect determination.”

“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 in a letter to Babbitt’s family, and shared on social media. “Additionally, I would like to invite you and your family to meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences.”

The Trump administration has also agreed to pay Babbitt’s family nearly $5 million to settle their wrongful death suit filed against the federal government.