The Biden campaign defamed Kyle Rittenhouse as a white supremacist in 2020, even though there is nothing at all to back such a claim about him.
Now, the White House would rather not discuss the 18-year-old Illinoisan, who stands accused of shooting three men last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two. In fact, press secretary Jen Psaki is really annoyed that anyone would ask the White House to comment on the man they slandered during the presidential election.
“Why did President Biden suggest that Kyle Rittenhouse on trial in Kenosha is a white supremacist?” Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked the press secretary this week during a news conference.
Psaki let out a loud, long sigh, as if it’s tiresome to be asked about an issue the Biden team previously was very eager to discuss.
“What I’m not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial, nor the president’s past comments,” responded Psaki. “What I can reiterate for you is the president’s view that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons. We shouldn’t have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent anywhere in the country.”
The Biden campaign tweeted a video on Sept. 30, 2020, with the accompanying caption, “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.” The video includes images of Rittenhouse taken on the night of the riots.
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
Rittenhouse, who lives right across the state line from Kenosha and whose father, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin live in Kenosha, maintains he was in the city last year armed with a rifle during the Black Lives Matter riots to help protect local businesses. He also maintains he fired only in self-defense.
The jury is expected to deliver a verdict in his trial this week (closing arguments were on Monday).
“As you know,” Psaki continued, “closing arguments in this particular case, which I’m not speaking to — I’m just making broad comments about his own view. There’s an ongoing trial. We’re awaiting a verdict. Beyond that, I’m not going to speak to any individuals or this case.”
Doocy pushed back, noting correctly the White House’s sudden hands-off approach is in contrast to its willingness to wade into the matter last year during the election, back when it suggested Rittenhouse is a white supremacist.
“But the president has spoken to it already,” the Fox News White House correspondent said. “And his mom now, Kyle Rittenhouse’s mom, came out saying that the president defamed her son, and she claims that when the president suggested her son’s a white supremacist, he was doing that to win votes. Is that what happened?”
“I just have nothing more to speak to an ongoing case where closing arguments were just made,” Psaki stated flatly, refusing to speak any more on the issue.
It would actually be a terrible mistake for the White House to weigh in on an ongoing trial, especially one as sensitive as this one. Then again, the Biden campaign also shouldn’t have defamed Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist,” which, by the way, he still will not be even if he is found guilty in the shootings.
Biden last year helped juice public opinion, including possibly the jurors, in a case to determine where Rittenhouse is indeed guilty of murdering two men. This was as irresponsible as commenting on the trial itself.
It’s a neat trick — slandering a man during an election and then pretending you’re supposedly above the fray when it turns out you were wrong.
Biden ran last year on the promise he’d cool the national temperature and return us to our dear, precious norms. It’s not clear where, exactly, defaming a then-teenager as a white supremacist falls on the “norms” scale.
