The annual “Ashli Babbitt Freedom March,” first held in 2023, is a new Memorial Day tradition in the nation’s capital. Last year the turnout was about a dozen people, judging from counting the noses in the video here.
It’s not easy to find out how many people turned out today, Memorial Day 2024, because the event isn’t newsworthy enough to merit coverage by media outlets, but from the livestream here, it looks like about 20 people are eating food cart fare and milling around.
Note, this might be a dead link after the livestream ends, but right now it’s live as I write this.
Ashli Babbitt does have some fans. In a nation of 334,914,895 people (per 2023 census), there’s bound to be some.
She was already a violent criminal before a police bullet stopped her as the only alternative to letting her breach the last police line between fleeing members of Congress, the fleeing vice president (and military aide with satchel containing nuclear launch codes seen in this video), and the angry mob of which she was the tip of the spear.
In 2016, Babbitt was a foul-mouthed ex-Air Force private security guard committing adultery with a co-worker (Aaron Babbitt), whose live-in girlfriend (Celeste Norris) ratted her out to her then-husband (Tim McEntee). Ashli McEntee, as she was then known, stalked Norris and rammed her vehicle (details here).
By Jan. 6, 2021, she was a full-blown nutcase embracing QAnon and other conspiracy theories (details here). To make her out as a “hero” is silly, but this spin gained some traction with help from Trump, extremist GOP members of Congress, and rightwing groups (see story here).
A fallen patriot? Heck no, a self-deluded sucker who fell for “Stop the Steal” and other rightwing nonsense. The few people attending her Memorial Day “hero march” today are suckers, too. But we’re a free country, with free speech, and idiots like the guy below can put anything on their signs they want to.
