Top House Democrat: ‘Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key’

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called for Kyle Rittenhouse to be imprisoned and never let out despite the trial for the teenager still being underway.

“Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key,” Jeffries, a New York congressman, tweeted from his campaign account on Wednesday.

The statement came the day Rittenhouse took the stand in his trial for reckless homicide and use of a dangerous weapon after killing two people and injuring one other during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, in August 2020. Rittenhouse was 17 years old at the time, had been in Kenosha with a group of people who said they were guarding property, and argued that he was acting in self-defense.

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Some commentators noted that Jeffries’s call to lock Rittenhouse up stood in contrast with his own long history of calling for criminal justice reform and an end to mass incarceration. In a June 2020 tweet, Jeffries called to “Defund The Prison Industrial Complex.”


Jeffries responded to that criticism later Wednesday night.

“The same people who rabidly scream Lock Her Up and worship insurrectionists at cult rallies now pretend to be defenders of due process and the rule of law? Get Lost,” Jeffries said.


Rittenhouse’s trial, now in its second week, has sparked strong and opposite reactions from politicians in both parties.

Responding to a clip of Rittenhouse breaking down and crying on the stand, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted, “NOT GUILTY!!!!!!” Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie reiterated his position that he would not convict Rittenhouse on any of the charges he faces. Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance said that a “lawless thug prosecutor is trying to destroy [Rittenhouse’s] life.”

Far-left Democrats soon after the shooting painted Rittenhouse as a villain. Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar called him a “domestic terrorist who executed two people.” Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley called him a “white supremacist domestic terrorist” and erroneously said that he crossed state lines with a weapon.

Being the leader of the House Democrats and a top contender to be the Democratic speaker of the House after Nancy Pelosi, though, gives Jeffries’s statement extra weight.

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It is not the first time Jeffries has directly criticized Rittenhouse.

“Armed vigilantes then apparently kill two anti-police brutality protestors in Kenosha last evening,” Jeffries said the day after the shooting. “Crickets from Trump and his sycophants. When will they condemn this lawless violence?”

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