“Ashli Babbitt! Ashli Babbitt!” chanted members of the January 6 community marching from the Ellipse in Washington DC to the United States Capitol to commemorate the fifth anniversary on Tuesday. “USA! USA!”
“We’re focusing on those that lost their lives,” said Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys at the time. “We wouldn’t be able to do this in the first term unchallenged like we are now.”
“Daddy Trump is your president!”
Police separated the J6ers from counter-protesters who placed themselves in their path to the Capitol.
“Nazi scum, off our streets,” the counter-protesters chanted.
Tensions built with police imploring the Trump supporters not to push toward them.
“I wanna say something about what Ashli [Babbitt] meant to the guys on the inside,” said Jake Lang, who was in the DC Jail for four years.
“She was a symbol of freedom, the persevering heart of an American who would give their life for this country.”
“She’s like America’s daughter now,” he says. “Her life mattered.”
Counter-protester Patricia Eugenio confronted the group as they began with a megaphone, which participants scuffled with her for, ultimately taking and destroying it.
News2Share began to ask Eugenio about her having been one of the only anti-Trump protesters at the original J6 when police approached and arrested her apparently over the prior scuffle.
“Lock her up!” the January 6ers chanted in celebration.
“To the victor, the spoils, my friends!” one J6er said as he showed off Patricia Eugenio’s destroyed megaphone from earlier. “F*** this demon.”
Eugenio was released without charges early in the afternoon.
