Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego seeks to block Ashli Babbitt from military funeral honors [View all]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: September 9, 2025 / 6:46 PM EDT


Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, will seek to block the Pentagon from offering full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a member of the crowd that rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Gallego, who has criticized the Pentagon for agreeing recently to provide Babbitt with an honorary military funeral, will attempt to pass legislation this week to prevent the honor from being conferred. He told CBS News, his legislation "comes from a sense of patriotism, you know, as someone who served this country, as someone who unfortunately buried a lot of Marines with full military honors."

"The idea that they're giving this to a person who actively tried to overthrow the government, who was violent in nature, who knowingly was entering a restrictive zone while we were trying to conduct the safe passage of democracy, and the idea that they're just going to give this without a fight, it's just not going to happen," Gallego said.

He said he's noticed that top officials, the secretary of the Air Force, defense secretary, the vice president and president have "never even said this," and "they just kind of have been trying to sneak this in under — in the dark." "And I'm not gonna let that happen," Gallego said. "I'm gonna put people on the record to make sure that we know who stood with your traitor, Ashli Babbitt."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democratic-senator-ruben-gallego-block-ashli-babbitt-military-funeral-honors/