Trump Defends Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse



Trump Defends Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse

by Ed Kilgore, nymag.com

August 31, 2020 06:30 PM

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The president extended his warped sympathies today beyond out-of-control police officers and his administration’s paramilitary forces to death-dealing armed vigilantes, in this remarkable exchange at the White House:

! Asked about Kyle Rittenhouse, supporter accused of murder, Trump says he's looking into it but adds, "That was an interesting situation...he was trying to get away from them...looks like...and then they very violently attacked him...he probably would've been killed."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8)

Recognizing that we don’t know everything about the killings in Kenosha, Trump’s leap to the defense of Rittenhouse is either pathological or a deadly message he wants to sent to future would-be racial justice protesters. From video and witnesses, the two men allegedly shot and killed by Rittenhouse appear to have been armed with, respectively, a plastic bag and a skateboard (a third shooting victim may have been armed with a handgun, but that’s after the first two victims were down).

As for the surrounding circumstances, Rittenhouse was from a neighboring state, not Kenosha; was in all likelihood illegally in possession of the AR-15-style weapon he was carrying; was violating Kenosha’s curfew; and above all, was looking for trouble. That the local police may have tolerated him and his youthful MAGA associates is a black mark on their record, not any excuse for the young thug to swagger around Kenosha with a loaded weapon.

It’s reprehensible that a variety of conservative writers and gabbers have already sprung to Rittenhouse’s defense; and downright sacrilegious that a “Christian” crowdfunding site has been used to raise $270,000 (so far) for his legal costs. That Trump is identifying with the vigilante’s cause on the eve of a presidential drop-in in Kenosha is far worse, particularly since Trump has made no plans to visit the family of Jacob Blake, the police shooting victim whose plight touched off the protests that attracted Rittenhouse and his lethal weapon.

At least in his notorious comments after the 2017 white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Trump expressed neutrality toward both sides in the conflict. This time around he’s for the brownshirt wannabes from the get-go.