House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday met with the mother of Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer outside the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021.
McCarthy told reporters that Babbitt’s mom, Micki Witthoeft, “requested the meeting,” which took place in his office, just steps away from where her daughter was shot by Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd.
“I felt like it was a good meeting,” Witthoeft told NBC News.
“I thought Speaker McCarthy was delightful.”
Witthoeft didn’t go into detail about the meeting but confirmed that the two discussed a comment made by McCarthy last month in which he expressed his support of Byrd’s use of lethal force.
“I think the police officer did his job,” the House speaker said in February when asked by a reporter if he thought Babbitt was murdered.
McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Babbitt, 36, was among four people who died at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.
The Air Force veteran, Trump supporter and QAnon conspiracy theory believer was fatally shot by Byrd as she climbed through a busted-out window in the House Speaker’s Lobby.
Byrd was cleared of any wrongdoing in August 2021 after an internal investigation by Capitol Police.
The veteran officer later defended his actions publicly, telling NBC News, “I was doing my job” and insisting that Babbitt was a threat to lawmakers and congressional staff.
Some far-right lawmakers, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), don’t buy that Babbitt’s killing was justified.
“There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on Jan, 6, Ashli Babbitt, and … there’s never been a trial,” Greene said during a House Oversight Committee hearing in January, referring to Witthoeft.
“As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her. And no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue,” Greene added, demanding a “civil rights” probe of Jan. 6 arrests.
On Friday, Greene and several other GOP members of Congress plan to visit the Washington, DC, jail where some of the rioters charged with storming the Capitol Building are being held as they await trial.
