The mother of Illinois teen Kyle Rittenhouse, who is on trial for killing two alleged rioters last August in what looks like a clear case of self-defense, slammed President Joe Biden on Thursday for defaming her son as a “white supremacist” in a 2020 campaign ad.
The 18-year-old faces murder and other charges in the shootings of three people, two fatally, during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Biden used an image of Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, in a video ad last fall that attempted to connect then-President Donald Trump to white supremacy following a summer that saw leftists burn and loot buildings, attack cops and kill people.
The 50-second spot used the teen’s photo briefly as a sound bite from Fox News host Chris Wallace called on Trump to disavow racism again last fall during a presidential debate.
There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night. pic.twitter.com/Q3VZTW1vUV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 30, 2020
Wendy Rittenhouse, the mother of the Kenosha defendant, told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that she was appalled that a man who was running for president would use her child as a political prop.
“When I saw that, I was shocked, I was angry,” she said. “President Biden [doesn’t] know my son whatsoever, and he’s not a white supremacist. He’s not a racist. And [Biden] did that for the votes.”
“And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son. He defamed him,” the rightly upset mother added.
Rittenhouse used a rifle to shoot the three men during the Kenosha riot. Video played in his trial this week appears to show he was attempting to get away from all of them.
Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were each killed by Rittenhouse.
Video of the Rosenbaum shooting appears to show the man lunged at the teen after pursuing him, and that he had even thrown a bag at him. Rittenhouse and others testified this week that Rosenbaum had vowed to kill anyone in the teen’s group if he found them alone — and Rittenhouse was alone when Rosenbaum was shot.
In the shooting of Huber, the man was killed after he struck the teen in the head with a skateboard, video purports to show.
The third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, was shot in the right arm by Rittenhouse while holding a large caliber pistol. That man told the court this week that he was only shot after he advanced on the teen with the gun in his hand.
Gaige Grosskreutz ADMITS that Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense. Prosecuting attorney was not thrilled.https://t.co/5zksviOdpE#rittenhouse pic.twitter.com/qcIqxaQ8fI
— National Association for Gun Rights (@NatlGunRights) November 10, 2021
It’s worth noting that all three of the men who were shot were white. Rittenhouse was also a teenage American citizen who was and is entitled to a fair trial.
As Hannity pointed out, zero evidence has been presented that Rittenhouse held any animus toward anyone based on skin color.
In fact, as he and others have testified, Rittenhouse was in Kenosha on Aug. 25 guarding property, putting out fires and even treating the superficial injuries of rioters and demonstrators.
Despite much of that information being available last year, Biden’s campaign ad connected him to “white supremacy,” and it certainly didn’t go a long way toward keeping potential jurors impartial.
Of course, as Wendy Rittenhouse noted, Biden and the Democrats never cared if he was racist or homicidal. They simply used him to pander for votes.
Context be damned, Biden and his campaign used an image of a teenager at a riot that they encouraged.
After that riot it devolved into chaos, they cashed in on a phony narrative that Rittenhouse was part of some element in the country that is driven to kill by racism.
These soulless individuals did this as an American citizen was detained by police pending what everyone knew would be a very public trial.