Rittenhouse says Biden defamed his character
Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who was acquitted of murder last week after a jury found he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed two people and injured a third during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., last summer, accused President Biden of defaming him.
“What did you make of the president of the United States calling you a white supremacist?” Rittenhouse was asked by Fox News host Tucker Carlson during a wide-ranging interview, a portion of which was aired on Monday evening.
“Mr. President, if I could say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before you make a statement,” Rittenhouse said.
Carlson pressed Rittenhouse to go on, saying “it’s not a small thing to be called that.”
“No,” Rittenhouse responded. “It’s actual malice, defaming my character, for him to say something like that.”
Tucker: “What did you make of the president of the United States calling you a white supremacist?”
Rittenhouse: “It’s actual malice, defaming my character, for him to say something like that.” pic.twitter.com/90OnmwFyNU
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 23, 2021
Carlson and Rittenhouse were apparently referencing a video cited by Rittenhouse’s defenders that was tweeted by Biden in September during the presidential race last year, which featured a clip from a debate between Biden and former President Trump.
During the debate, Fox News anchor and moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he was “willing to condemn white supremacist and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.”
The clip shows Trump responding by condemning what he called political violence “from the left wing” before telling members of the far-right Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by.”
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
“I’m not a racist person. I support the BLM movement,” Rittenhouse said. “I support peacefully demonstrating … I believe there needs to be change. I believe there’s a lot of prosecutorial misconduct, not just in my case but in other cases. It’s just amazing to see how much a prosecutor can take advantage of someone.”
“Like, if they did this to me, imagine what they could have done to a person of color who doesn’t maybe have the resources I do or it’s not widely publicized like my case,” he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rittenhouse’s remarks about Biden.
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