When 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois traveled hours and hours to Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with a Smith & Wesson AR-15-style .223 rifle, to disrupt a Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting, ultimately killing two and injuring another, we knew that a good handful of right-wing nutcases would be chomping at the bit to defend him, simply because they’re racist trash.
However, even under the disastrous administration that we’re currently suffering through, I’m not sure that anyone was prepared for the influx of defenses, excuses, and sometimes downright praise we’ve seen for the murderous individual from a variety of prominent Republican figures.
Shortly after the Rittenhouse shooting happened, President Donald Trump, himself took to the podium during a coronavirus task force briefing, full of excuses for the killer — essentially seeming to imply that Rittenhouse was simply acting in self-defense rather than senslessly opening fire in a peaceful protest and killing two innocent human beings and wounding another.
But here we are, weeks out from the shooting, and wouldn’t you know — the blatant defenses of the guy are still rolling in like hotcakes.
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During a Fox News segment with Pam Bondi, former Florida Attorney General and part of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial legal team, the defense for Rittenhouse was once again unabashedly reignited.
After Sean Hannity took a few moments to harp on “presumed innocence” Bondi chimed in, declaring, “People have to understand out there, that was a war zone. You’ve got a 17-year-old out there trying to protect his state. He’s helping people who had been injured, he had paramedic training from being a lifeguard, he’s taking graffiti off walls, he’s trying to mitigate the chaos out there. They rushed to judgement. We don’t know everything yet. That video speaks volumes.”
Bondi goes on to essentially trash and blame Rittenhouse’s victims before doubling down, “This kid was out there trying to help people. Were people killed? Absolutely. But again, we don’t know yet. You’ve got a little boy out there trying to protect his community.”
Kyle Rittenhouse’s “community” and “state” was HOURS away from Kenosha, Wisconsin where he shot three people and killed two after crossing state lines with a firearm he wasn’t even legally allowed to have in the first place.
12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed on spot for carrying a toy gun.
The difference here isn’t hard to figure out.
You can watch the clip here:
For the second time tonight Fox News is unabashedly defending Kyle Rittenhouse with Pam Bondi calling him “a little boy out there trying to protect his community” pic.twitter.com/PzDKJVSDec
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) September 23, 2020
Featured image via screen capture
