Trump Defends Supporters' Inalienable Right To Kill People
Yesterday, Joe Biden
unambiguously denounced violence in our cities. Donald Trump went the other way. A hundred years ago last week, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse took a field trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he shot three people, killing two, with an assault rifle he couldn't legally carry. That was an unambiguously bad act, but Rittenhouse has become a folk hero among the darker corners of the Right. And they don't come darker than the current White House occupant.
When asked during her latest deceitfest if Trump would condemn Rittenhouse's actions, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "The president is not going to weigh in on that, he may weigh in further this evening but at the moment, he's not weighing in."
McEnany was lying ... again, because Trump had technically weighed in on the Kenosha murders when he liked a tweet Sunday from someone who claimed, "Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump." When reminded of this, McEnany tap danced a little and suggested Trump was just raising awareness about "details that aren't as well-known." She insisted that Trump "roundly condemns violence in all of its forms," which he does not and would not later during his own unhinged press conference.
Prosecutors say you can clearly hear #Rittenhouse call someone on the phone and say, "I just killed somebody," afte… https://t.co/ET9CQZtyyv— Jason Fechner (@Jason Fechner) 1598918551.0
It is easier for Biden to repudiate violent anarchists because he has a human soul and also they aren't his supporters. You don't see many Antifa types wearing “No Malarkey" T-shirts. Rittenhouse was a devoted Trump fan, even attending one of his hate rallies. The only recorded case of Trump not supporting someone who idolizes him is Donald Trump Jr.
REPORTER: Are you going to condemn the actions of vigilantes like Kyle Rittenhouse?
TRUMP: That was an interesting situation.
No, it's a homicide, and Rittenhouse's victims — Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum — have families who are still mourning.
TRUMP: You saw the same tape that I saw. He was trying to get away from them, I guess.
Rittenhouse was fleeing the scene after fatally shooting someone. This isn't fake news. It's from the actual criminal complaint against him.
After the first shooting, Rittenhouse can be seen on camera making a phone call, the complaint claims. As he ran away, Rittenhouse can be heard saying "I just killed somebody."
Trump claimed that Rittenhouse “fell" and the victims “very violently attacked him." This is a repulsive lie that contradicts eyewitness accounts and Wisconsin prosecutors.
While running away, Rittenhouse tripped and fell to the ground. One man was seen on video approaching Rittenhouse, and Rittenhouse appears to fire two rounds at the man, both of which missed.
One of the other victims killed, 26-year-old Anthony Huber, can then be seen hitting Rittenhouse's left shoulder with a skateboard before trying to pull the gun away from him, the complaint said. Rittenhouse then fired one round, which struck Huber. Huber died from the gunshot wound.
Huber lost his life attempting to disarm and detain Rittenhouse, and the president of the United States just slandered him on live TV.
TRUMP: [Rittenhouse] was in very big trouble. I guess he would've been killed.
There's no evidence of this, and Trump is now serving as his fan club member's defense counsel. (Rittenhouse's actual attorney would later promote the BS self-defense claim on Tucker Carlson.) This is sickening and it got worse. Trump defended the far-right goons, also supporters of his, who drove an actual caravan to Portland and attacked protesters with paintballs and pepper spray. He insisted that they were peacefully protesting and that “paint is a defensive mechanism. Paint is not bullets."
Trump: Paint is not bullets. Your supporters and they are your supporters indeed, shot a young gentleman and killed… https://t.co/6ktxXlPtuS— Acyn (@Acyn) 1598912141.0
And yet someone responded to paintballs, or mace, or who knows what all, with bullets. We haven't really addressed the Portland shooting yet, in which a man affiliated with the far-right Patriot Prayer, was killed, because we still don't know anything about it. We do know that a man's dead, nobody knows who did it, and that before Aaron Danielson's death, people like the president were egging this shit on.
The "Trump 2020 Cruise Rally" left from a mall parking lot in suburban Clackamas County, Oregon. Kyle Rittenhouse is from Lake County, Illinois. President Klan Robe claims that Cory Booker's Negro Brigade is coming for white women in the suburbs, but it's Trump's suburban supporters who are invading cities and instigating violence.
[The Daily Beast / Channel3000 / Oregonlive.com]
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Stephen Robinson is a writer and social kibbitzer based in Portland, Oregon. He writes make believe for Cafe Nordo, an immersive theatre space in Seattle. Once, he wrote a novel called “Mahogany Slade,” which you should read or at least buy. He's also on the board of the Portland Playhouse theatre. His son describes him as a “play typer guy."
