(NewsNation Now) — After betting Dan Abrams wouldn’t invite her onto his show, conservative pundit Julie Kelly defended much of the anti-Capitol Police rhetoric she’s used in the year since the Jan. 6 riot in an appearance on “Dan Abrams Live.”
In a 10-minute interview, she said the Capitol Police, Department of Justice and Democratic members of Congress are using the riot to target conservatives and covering up evidence that could prove conspiracies and wrongdoing. However, she did not provide specific evidence to support her claims; she called for investigations into matters that officials have considered closed.
Kelly pointed to a Politico article written in January that said federal police were investigating the associates and visitors of Congress members. She said it’s turned them into a “spy agency” and accused them of feeding scandalous information about Republicans to the press.
In the article, the Capitol Police defended the practice as a way to anticipate security threats.
Kelly also amplified Rep. Troy Nehls’ (R, Texas) claim from earlier this month that a Capitol Police officer walked into his office when nobody was there and took a photo of an unfinished bill the congressman was writing. He said three officers then came back the next week to ask questions about what was in that photo.
The same day Nehls made his allegation, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger released a statement explaining his officers are tasked with closing doors to open offices. “No case investigation was ever initiated or conducted into the Representative or his staff,” Manger’s statement said.
Nehls called Manger’s statement a “mischaracterization of the events.” He has claimed the door the Capitol Police say was open automatically closes.
Abrams took issue with the scope of the conspiracy Kelly was alleging.
“This is the typical police bashing I deal with from the left all the time: That the police are the bad guys, the police are out to get us, the police are targeting us,” Abrams said. “And it’s that same kind of nonsense that we’re now hearing from many of you on the far right.”
Kelly also cautioned that Ashli Babbitt’s death at the hands of Capitol Police on Jan. 6 was evidence the media should have scrutinized the officers more. She called Babbitt an unarmed political protestor, which is true, though investigators say she was attempting to break into the House chamber with others.
“As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out,” a Department of Justice statement reads. “An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor.”
Though Kelly alleged a “legitimate” investigation was never conducted, the statement acknowledged they did look into charging the officer, but there was not enough evidence to convict.
“What you don’t want to focus on is the evidence we actually have,” Abrams said to Kelly. “You ignore the actual video that we have of the incident and you keep talking about what we don’t have.”