Five Years After Ashli Babbitt’s Death: Her Husband Speaks of Enduring Pain at Capitol Anniversary

Five years after Ashli Babbitt was killed in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, her husband, Aaron Babbitt, said on Tuesday that the anniversary remains painful but he is enduring, marking the date while trying to live in a way that would have made her proud.

Babbitt described the day as feeling different from past years because it forced him to relive the events of 2021. “I’m hanging in there,” Babbitt said, describing the anniversary as a moment of remembrance while acknowledging the emotional weight it still carries.

He recounted that the months immediately following his wife’s death were chaotic, extending beyond grief into what he described as intense pressure from federal authorities and the public. “My business was being dismantled. Destroyed by fake reviews, and the press was all over the place,” Babbitt said. “[The] FBI was at my door. We found out later that they had an open file on my dead wife. They opened one after her death. They had a file on me,” he added.

Babbitt also noted that President Donald Trump’s public remarks about Ashli Babbitt in 2021 and his direct contact with him provided reassurance at a time when he felt isolated. “It was a game-changer for my confidence. It was July of 2021 that he called me and said her name at a rally that night, and then I knew I had friends in the right places at that point,” Babbitt said.