Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all counts in connection with shooting three demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two of them. Since then, the Illinois adolescent, who has largely been silent for the past year and a half, has been doing the rounds of interviews. The first stop, of course, was Tucker Carlson, who accused Joe Biden of “defaming” him when he was seeking the job he now occupies by associating him to the people who are now praising his acquittal.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy attempted to assassinate the president, or at the very least the White House press secretary, on Tuesday. He asked Jen Psaki, his frequent sparring partner, if Biden planned to apologize for a video he issued before winning the 2020 election in which he lumped him in with other violent militia and white supremacist groups terrorizing the country then and now.
Psaki began by putting Doocy’s question into context. “This is about a campaign video from last year that used President Trump’s own statements from a debate in which he refused to condemn white nationalists and militia groups,” she explained. “And, as you may recall from history, and as many of you have reported, President Trump didn’t simply refuse to criticize militia groups on the debate stage; he actively promoted them throughout his presidency.”
“So what we’ve seen are the tragic consequence of that — when people think it’s okay to take the law into their own hands instead of allowing law enforcement to do its job,” she continued. “And the president believes in condemning hatred, division, and violence. That’s exactly what was done in that video.
When Doocy inquired about another remark Biden had made about Rittenhouse, she referred to the infamous photo of him posing with members of the Proud Boys, all of whom were flashing a white power symbol, including Rittenhouse.
In an interview with NewsNation released Tuesday, Rittenhouse placed the blame for that photo on his then-lawyers, including pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, whom he later fired. He said that they’d put him “in situations like that with people I don’t agree with,” that he didn’t know flashing OK had become a white power symbol, and that he had assumed those in the photo with him “were just a bunch of, like, construction dudes based on how they looked.”
Meanwhile, Rittenhouse’s current counsel has lambasted others on the right, notably Matt Gaetz, who have tried to profit off Rittenhouse’s case. He was angered with Tucker Carlson as well, but evidently not enough to prevent his client from giving him his first interview.
