On 19 November, a jury cleared Kyle Rittenhouse of charges of homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, on 25 August 2020 during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, riots.
Kyle Rittenhouse has insisted that he supports the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the court case that recently saw him acquitted of five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, stemming from a shooting incident that occurred during the Kenosha riots last summer, had nothing to do with race.
“… It had nothing to do with race, had to do with the right to self-defence,” Rittenhouse said in an interview filmed for Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Sunday, according to a partial transcript cited by the Daily Mail.
Kyle Rittenhouse: "This case has nothing to do with race."
Watch our exclusive interview, tomorrow at 8pm ET on @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/vXLEVtfycc
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 22, 2021
“I support the BLM movement and peacefully demonstrating,” said Rittenhouse in an advance clip of the interview, airing Monday night. Rittenhouse also slammed “prosecutorial misconduct” not just in his case, which has polarised the nation, but “in other cases” as well.
“I believe there’s a lot of Rittenhouse. It’s just amazing to see how much a prosecutor can take advantage of someone,” he said.
The Kenosha riots erupted in late August 2020 after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man wanted for sexual assault, and coincided with a nationwide Black Lives Matter protest movement over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
On 25 August 2020, a 17-year old Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two white men and injured a third with his Smith and Wesson AR-style semi-automatic rifle while being chased by an angry mob. The young man had pleaded self-defence in the fatal shooting. Under cross-examination he had insisted that at the time he had no other choice than to defend himself as the protesters were a “threat to his life”.
In the interview, Rittenhouse relived his feelings immediately after the shootings.
“I tell everybody there what happened. I said I had to do it. I was just attacked. I was dizzy, I was vomiting, I couldn’t breathe,” he told Tucker Carlson.
The Fox News interview is believed to have been filmed on Sunday on Boca Grande Island, where Rittenhouse and his family were reportedly seen dining in the area. Besides the interview, online subscription service Fox Nation is purportedly to air a documentary series on the case next month.
According to Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial attorney, Mark Richards, the Fox documentary crew had been granted “exclusive behind-the-scenes access” to the defence team against his wishes. On Saturday, Justin Wells, senior executive producer of Tucker Carlson Tonight, told the AP that Fox News did not offer payment to Rittenhouse’s family for any special access, footage rights, legal fees or any other purpose during or after the murder trial.
Hundreds of people marching in Portland, Oregon in protest of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict pic.twitter.com/aKPcIEU4sJ
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) November 21, 2021
As Rittenhouse gave the pre-recorded interview, protests continued across the country over his not-guilty verdict, including in Kenosha, with some denouncing the trial’s outcome as “racist”, although he and the people who were shot were all white.
Demonstrators are holding a “die in” outside the Portland Timbers game in protest of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict pic.twitter.com/lSPbaNShfR
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) November 22, 2021
Several dozen people gathered at Kenosha’s Civic Center Park on Sunday to trace the route Rittenhouse took on the August night when he shot and killed two people and wounded a third during the riots. Protesters carried signs that said “Reject Racist Vigilante Terror” and “The Whole System is Guilty!”
#chicago will #Riot tonight. #Kenosha pic.twitter.com/PX6cIqEsMu
— Not Villain Report (@BraveTheSoul) November 20, 2021
Some protesters purportedly carried long guns. Some of the protests turned violent on Friday night, with police in Portland, Oregon, declaring a riot after demonstrators started smashing cars and store windows.
BLM protesters gather outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York to protest the NOT GUILTY verdict of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
????: @LeeroyPress pic.twitter.com/oK7g4JWq9z
— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) November 20, 2021
At least five people were arrested in Queens, New York City, and a group of approximately 300 protesters was reportedly seen outside the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn before marching across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, according to The Daily Wire.
