WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Tuesday she wanted to use her position on the House Oversight Committee to look into claims of “civil rights abuses” committed against Trump supporters arrested in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Greene (R-Ga.) also said she wanted the committee to review the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by a Capitol police officer as she attempted to enter the Speaker’s Lobby through a broken window on that day.
“There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6, Ashli Babbitt, and … there’s never been a trial,” Taylor Greene said, referring to Babbitt’s mother, Micki 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.”
Taylor Greene made the remarks after Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) proposed adding a civil rights and civil liberties subcommittee, which was voted down. Unlike Taylor Greene, Crockett had focused her proposal on racism.
“When over 100 people every year are losing their lives in routine traffic stops, when over a dozen large police departments are operating under consent decrees for violations of their citizens’ civil liberties and when the attention of a nation is focused on the issue of civil rights, it is our duty to rise to the occasion and conduct oversight and provide accountability on this crucial subject,” Crockett said.
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Taylor-Greene said that she hoped Crockett would “share” in her call for an investigation into Babbitt’s killing. Further, the Republican said she wanted the committee to make an inquiry into the way the rioters arrested for invading the Capitol are treated in jail.
“I believe that there are many people that came into the Capitol on January 6, whose civil rights and liberties are being violated heavily,” Taylor Greene said. “And this committee will – I hope, Mr. Chairman – look into those civil rights abuses, because they’re happening in a jail right here in this city.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams criticized Taylor Greene in a Twitter post: “This is what new member of the House Oversight Committee @RepMTG wants to prioritize.”
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“She was welcomed onto the Committee and described as an “all-star” by Chairman @JamesComer,” he added.
Witthoeft had been arrested on Jan. 6 of this year, the second anniversary of her daughter’s death, for refusing to obey an order and blocking and obstructing roadways during a protest near the Capitol. The charges were dropped by the DC attorney general’s office last week.
