Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, will seek to block the Pentagon from offering full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a member of the crowd that rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
File: U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) listens during a town hall at NOAH Cholla Health Center on March 17, 2025 in Scottsdale, Arizona. / Credit: Rebecca Noble / Getty Images
Gallego, who has criticized the Pentagon for agreeing recently to provide Babbitt with an honorary military funeral, will attempt to pass legislation this week to prevent the honor from being conferred.
He told CBS News, his legislation “comes from a sense of patriotism, you know, as someone who served this country, as someone who unfortunately buried a lot of Marines with full military honors.”
“The idea that they’re giving this to a person who actively tried to overthrow the government, who was violent in nature, who knowingly was entering a restrictive zone while we were trying to conduct the safe passage of democracy, and the idea that they’re just going to give this without a fight, it’s just not going to happen,” Gallego said.
He said he’s noticed that top officials, the secretary of the Air Force, defense secretary, the vice president and president have “never even said this,” and “they just kind of have been trying to sneak this in under — in the dark.”
“And I’m not gonna let that happen,” Gallego said. “I’m gonna put people on the record to make sure that we know who stood with your traitor, Ashli Babbitt.”
Gallego’s formal resolution said Babbitt was undeserving because she “attempted to force her way inside by climbing through the door’s broken window, where a Capitol Police Officer intervened to protect dozens of House members and staff cornered nearby.”
“Ashli Babbitt’s actions on January 6, 2021, constitute disqualifying conduct under section 985 of 4 title 10, United States Code, the rendering of military funeral honors to her would bring discredit upon the Air Force, and she is not eligible for such honors,” Gallego’s resolution reads.
The Arizona Democrat has posted a number of social media messages criticizing the idea of any military honor for Babbitt.
“Those honors are for those who defend the Constitution, not traitors,” Gallego wrote in a post on X on Sept. 2.
Babbitt was on the front line of the mob that stormed the Capitol and attempted to crawl through a smashed window into the House Speaker’s Lobby, as lawmakers and congressional staff were evacuating during the Capitol siege. She was shot and killed by a police officer. A federal investigation of the shooting determined charges were not warranted against the officer.
File: Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by Capitol Police while storming into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. / Credit: Ashli Babbitt/Twitter
The Pentagon initially denied the Babbitt family’s request for military funeral honors for her. It stated in a letter that the circumstances preceding her death — that she was “fatally shot after having illegally entered” the Capitol — resulted in the determination that conferring the honor would “bring discredit on the Air Force.” The letter was posted by Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative legal group, that lobbied for the Pentagon to provide honors to Babbitt. In its request to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the organization cited President Trump’s clemency for more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.
The request said the government’s “refusal to provide military funeral honors was part of the ‘grave national injustice’ that President Trump ended by granting clemency. The ‘process of national reconciliation’ that began with presidential clemency demands a new determination granting military funeral honor for Ashli and her family.”
An Air Force undersecretary posted on social media in August about the Pentagon’s decision to provide the honor to Babbitt.
Judicial Watch’s request to the Pentagon argued, “Ashli enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school at age seventeen. She left home for basic training after her eighteenth birthday. Ashli graduated from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas in August 2004. Ashli served in the U.S. Air Force from April 2004 to June 2009 and then in the Air National Guard for several years. Ashli was a Senior Airman and received an honorable discharge.”
Judicial Watch did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the timing of the Babbitt honor.
Babbitt’s mother has actively advocated against some of the Jan. 6 prosecutions and has sought an investigation into her daughter’s shooting. Babbitt’s mother met with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol in 2023.
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