Kyle Rittenhouse slams 'racist' tag, supports BLM in first interview since acquittal
Kyle Rittenhouse, whose trial almost divided the nation into two warring fronts in the past few weeks, said that he is not a racist and that he is also a big supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement in a news interview. In his self-defense, the 18-year-old said, “This case has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self-defense."
"I'm not a racist person. I support the BLM movement. I support peacefully demonstrating. I believe there needs to be a change. I believe there’s a lot of prosecutorial misconduct, not just in my case but in other cases, and it’s just amazing to see how much a prosecutor can take advantage of somebody," he told Fox News.
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Kyle Rittenhouse: "This case has nothing to do with race."
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 22, 2021
Watch our exclusive interview, tomorrow at 8pm ET on @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/vXLEVtfycc
Earlier on Friday, November 19, Rittenhouse was found not liable by the Kenosha County Court in Wisconsin on all five charges brought against him. The then 17-year-old was accused of fatally shooting two men -- Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber -- and injuring one, Gaige Grosskreutz, amid spiraling protests over a Kenosha police officer shooting black local man Jacob Blake on August 25, 2020.
The three and half days of the trial process went over the debate of whether Rittenhouse used his legal right to use weapons during the violence in Kenosha or whether he was a dangerous vigilante who escalated the tension. During his trial, his defense attorney Mark Richards reported that Kyle Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense that night when the incident took place. Joseph Rosenbaum ambushed him, and others at the scene including Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz attacked him without understanding what had happened, the defense attorney added during his trial.
A Tucker Carlson TV crew has been embedded with Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards tells @ChrisCuomo that he was against it: "I did not approve of that. I threw them out of the room several times..." pic.twitter.com/IrQwyLmID5
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 20, 2021
In another interview with CNN, Rittenhouse's attorney Mark Richards told his client "wishes he didn't have to do it." He affirmed that, "Kyle said: 'If I had to do it all over again and I had any idea something like this would happen. I wouldn't do it,'
Earlier during the trial, Rittenhouse also mentioned that he was on the streets that night when the civil uprising was taking place. He was present there just to help, and he was also helping other people as a medic before the shooting took place. Rittenhouse also said that he had no other choice than to defend himself and alleged that the protesters were a threat to his life.
He added, “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.” In the end, Kyle Rittenhouse added that “I believe they came to the correct verdict and I’m glad that everything went well, It’s been a rough journey but we made it through it. We made it through the hard part.”