The mother of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with killing two rioters who were pursuing him in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, blasted President Joe Biden for smearing her son as a “white supremacist” last year.
“When I saw that I was shocked, I was angry,” Wendy Rittenhouse told Fox News. “President Biden don’t [sic] know my son whatsoever, and he’s not a White supremacist. He’s not a racist. And [Biden] did that for the votes. And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son, he defamed him.”
Biden smeared Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist” while he was still a candidate for the U.S. presidency. In one of his campaign advertisements, Biden included a picture of Rittenhouse while he railed against “white supremacy” in the U.S., implying that Rittenhouse was himself a “white supremacist.”
Rittenhouse is currently on trial after being charged with two counts of homicide for shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, both of whom had criminal records. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty, arguing he shot the men in self-defense after they chased him down and threatened his safety while he was trying to protect local businesses from the riots.
Wendy Rittenhouse argued it is obvious from the video footage of her son’s confrontation with the men that they would have killed him if he had not shot them first.
“I see this man trying to kick my son in the face,” she said. “When I look at the video with that guy pointing a gun to my son’s head, I thought: he was going to die.”
Rittenhouse has “a lot of healing to do,” his mother added, saying he still has “nightmares” about the shooting.
Rittenhouse’s defense team filed for a mistrial earlier this week after the prosecution attempted to use his Fifth Amendment rights against him. At least one charge against Rittenhouse has been dropped — a misdemeanor for violating Kenosha’s curfew. The judge dropped the charge after the prosecution failed to provide evidence that the curfew had even been in place.
