Last Updated on January 7, 2025
A notoriously anti-MAGA Senator from Oklahoma praised Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd for killing Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, exactly four years ago.
“When I was in the chamber, they attempted to enter through the front door, and simultaneously they were trying to breach the speaker’s lobby from the back, which posed a challenge as we had to defend from two sides,” then-Representative Markwayne Mullen (R-OK) revealed in an interview with ABC right after the mostly peaceful demonstration.
As he recalled the intense moments, he stated, “As they shattered the glass at the back, the police lieutenant present – with whom I had conversed multiple times earlier – found himself in a position where he had no other option,” Mullen continued, “With the mob advancing towards the door, the lives of numerous members of Congress and their staff were at risk. Drawing his weapon was a difficult but necessary decision under the circumstances, and once that step was taken, the only recourse was to defend against the threat with lethal force.
He later added that Byrd’s killing of Babbitt “saved people’s lives even more,” despite the fact that Babbitt was the only one killed on J6.
Mullin has also joined Democrats in voting to send tons of foreign aid to Ukraine.
A month following the distressing events, Senator Markwayne Mullen indicated a concerning stance by suggesting that there were no intentions among his colleagues in the Senate, and conceivably within Congress, to seek retaliation for the use of violence and the federal government’s force against American civilians.
WATCH:
MarkWayne signals that Congress DOES NOT intend to pursue Retribution.
— National File (@NationalFile) December 8, 2024
Babbitt was a U.S. Air Force veteran who was unarmed when Byrd killed her outside the Capitol Building where conservatives protested the certification of the 2020 election results after courts refused to hear any evidence of potential fraud in that election.
Mullin recently worked against former congressman and Trump ally Matt Gaetz, who President-Elect Donald Trump tapped to be Attorney General, advocating alongside Democrats for the release of a House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz during what would have been Gaetz’s Senate confirmation process.
Mullin had a longstanding personal grudge against Gaetz, one time saying, “We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with,” and “this is the type of individual Matt Gaetz is.”
Gaetz eventually chose to drop out of the running for the position.
Mullin has a history of unhinged behavior, including when in November 2023 during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing, challenged Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien to a physical fight.
