Shelagh Fogarty, a British radio presenter, demanded DC Police shoot pro-Trump protesters in the Capitol less than an hour before Ashli Babbit was killed.
Fogarty, who currently presents a show on LBC, the UK’s biggest talk radio station, replied to a tweet from Firas Maksad, showing a video of pro-Trump protesters engaging in scuffles with DC Police inside the Capitol Building, after thousands of them had stormed it.
“Shoot them,” Fogarty said succinctly, in a now-deleted tweet. Fogarty is well-known to the British public, having been the breakfast show co-presenter for BBC Radio 5 Live for many years.
Scuffles & violence inside the US Capitol pic.twitter.com/47UCAux3gP
— Firas Maksad (@FirasMaksad) January 6, 2021
https://twitter.com/410MLXVI/status/1347060868354338816
Within the hour, Ashli Babbit, a 14-year veteran of the US Air Force, was shot dead by DC Police. Her husband described her as a “strong supporter of President Trump, and a great patriot to all who knew her.” An eyewitness told National File that the police officers moved out of the way of the door of the Senate chambers: a window was broken in the Capitol Building, and Babbit started to climb up, and was shot by a “man in the suit.”
— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) January 6, 2021
READ MORE: REST IN PEACE: Ashli Babbit, Peaceful Protester Executed by DC Police
The British radio star initially defended her call to shoot protesters, even after Babbit had been heartlessly executed. Fogarty tried to baselessly claim that the protesters involved in the storming of the Capitol were “white supremacists,” and that “black invaders” wouldn’t “have reached the door, let alone the inner sanctum” of the building, and her tweet was simply meant to reflect that disparity.
You know what I meant. These are white supremacists who, but for the colour of their skin, wouldn’t have reached the door let alone the inner sanctum. Nobody should be shot. Nobody should be there.
— Shelagh Fogarty 💙 (@ShelaghFogarty) January 6, 2021
You mistake me – again. Do you honestly think black invaders of the Capitol building goading police and security in a seat of democratic power would NOT have been shot? That was my point. I want nobody shot.
— Shelagh Fogarty 💙 (@ShelaghFogarty) January 6, 2021
You would if they were black
— Shelagh Fogarty 💙 (@ShelaghFogarty) January 6, 2021
After hours of defending herself and her comments, well after Babbit, who was unarmed, had died, Fogarty eventually deleted the tweet, calling her tweet “clumsy.”
A woman has died and while my tweet was making a wider point about who gets shot in America – it was clumsy. Awful events.
— Shelagh Fogarty 💙 (@ShelaghFogarty) January 6, 2021
Fogarty was roundly condemned by many online, with some calling to have her axed from her LBC show. Incitement to violence is a crime in the United Kingdom.
I don’t understand how anyone could tweet “Shoot them” @ShelaghFogarty @LBC
Why are you inciting people to commit violence? @TwitterSupport
— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) January 7, 2021
We will be asking @LBC what action they’ll be taking against this inexcusable incitement from @ShelaghFogarty
The media is radicalising people to violence with their rhetoric. Shocking stuff from this obnoxious has-been. pic.twitter.com/TOD2jQREbb— AltNewsMedia 🌍 (@AltNewsMedia) January 6, 2021
https://twitter.com/SteStringfellow/status/1346966434828738560
UPDATE: National File reached out to LBC and their parent company, Global Radio, for comment. A representative for Global Radio told National File that they will be investigating National File’s inquiry, and will respond in 15 days.
