Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was fatally shot after breaching the Capitol building Wednesday, was “never afraid to speak her mind,” according to her ex-husband.
“I feel absolutely terrible and sick to my stomach about it,” Timothy McEntee, who was married to Babbitt for 14 years, texted the Washington Post after Babbitt’s death. “She was never afraid to speak her mind and in a way this was her way of speaking her mind (going to the rally).”
Babbitt, who served in the Air Force for 14 years, spent time in Afghanistan and Iraq and was also deployed with the National Guard to Kuwait and Qatar, according to McEntee.
The two met in the Air Force and split in May 2019.
McEntee remembered Babbitt as “very loud and opinionated, but caring, sweet, thoughtful, loving.”
He added, “You would never forget meeting her.”
Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, was outspoken on social media and a frequent retweeter of alt-right activists like Jack Posobiec and conspiracy theories.
In early September, she tweeted a photo of her and a pal wearing QAnon shirts at a boat parade in support of President Trump in San Diego. She captioned the snap, “WWG1WGA” — the extremist group’s rallying cry, “Where we go one, we go all.”
On New Year’s Day, she retweeted a post saying, “This is a COUP. They do not Fear us. They don’t even try to Hide now.”
The day before she was shot and killed by Capitol Police, Babbitt tweeted, “Nothing will stop us…. they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours….dark to light.”
The post was an apparent reference to the QAnon theory about “The Storm” — the day when Trump is supposed to uncover an underground cabal of pedophiles and bring salvation.
In 2018, Babbitt posted a rambling video on Twitter slamming California politicians as the crisis at the US’s southern border played out.
Her Twitter bio said she loved “her dude,” dog, and “above all, my country” — referring to her new husband, Aaron Babbitt, who owned a pool supply company with his wife, according to McEntee.
Aaron described his late wife as an ardent Trump supporter, San Diego network KUSI reported. The outlet said Babbitt was a “high-level security official” during her time in the Air Force.