Trump calls the Capitol riot an 'unfortunate event' and says there's 'no reason' Ashli Babbitt was shot dead
Former President Donald Trump called the January 6 Capitol attack an 'unfortunate event' during a press conference Wednesday at his Bedminster resort.
He went on to complain about the 'unfair' treatment his supporters have received while 'nothing happens' to Antifa or the Capitol Police officer who killed Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Trump supporter who was shot trying to enter the Speaker's Lobby during the insurrection attempt.
'He would be the most well known person in this country, in the world. The person that shot Ashli Babbitt, boom, right through the head, just boom,' Trump said. 'There was no reason for that.'
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday at a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey that the January 6 Capitol attack was an 'unfortunate event'
Trump also claimed that a Senate report on the January 6 attack (pictured), which was carried out by his supporters, didn't name him and let him off the hook for blame
Trump complained that the officer who killed Ashli Babbitt (pictured) hasn't been publicly named. Babbitt was shot on January 6 as she tried to get into the Speaker's Lobby
Trump hosted reporters and supporters to an outdoor press event Wednesday to announce that he was headlining a class action lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and other 'Big Tech' companies, blasting them for stifling conservative viewpoints.
Trump got banished from Twitter and Facebook for his actions on January 6.
The then-president didn't condemn his supporters' actions as they broke into the U.S. Capitol Buildling as Congress was trying to certify the election of now-President Joe Biden.
During a brief Q&A session, Trump was asked what he had done to halt the insurrection - and why he wasn't able to stop it.
Trump answered by pointing to a report, likely the bipartisan Senate report, 'Examining the Capitol Attack,' which he claimed let him off the hook for any blame.
'I was surprised, frankly, because I would have assumed that they would have come up with a typically biased, at least on the Democrat side, statement. But the report came out a few weeks ago my name wasn't even mentioned,' Trump said.
Trump's named in the report 44 times, but the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration didn't delve into the root causes of the attack.
Those areas will likely be explored by the select committee assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the wake Senate Republicans filibustering a bill that would have created a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the 1/6 attack.
'It was an unfortunate event,' Trump said of January 6 at his press conference Wednesday.
'I say though, however, our people are being treated unbelievably unfairly,' Trump continued. 'When you look at people in prison, and nothing happens to Antifa and they burned down cities and killed people.'
'There were no guns in the Capitol,' the ex-president added. 'Except for the gun that shot Ashli Babbitt. And nobody knows who that man [was].'
The police lieutenant who shot Babbitt hasn't been publicly named.
'If that were the opposite way that man would be all over, he would be the most well known, and I believe I can say a thing because I believe I know exactly who it is,' Trump continued.
The Department of Justice said after a three-month-long investigation into the shooting that it would not bring criminal charges against the officer for fatally shooting Babbitt.
Trump suggested this wasn't enough.
'And why isn't that person being opened up and why isn't that being studied? They've already written it off, they said that case is closed,' he said.
'If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years and it would not be pretty,' he continued. 'So I just thought this was a very important time,' he added, seguing back to why he was suing Facebook and Twitter.
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