Kyle Rittenhouse Makes Surprising Statement to Tucker Carlson About BLM
In an interview that will air Monday evening, recently-acquitted teen Kyle Rittenhouse told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that, contrary to narratives that he is a virulent white supremacist, he actually supports the Black Lives Matter movement.
Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges against him on Friday, which stemmed from his actions during riots that broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man.
The then-17-year-old Rittenhouse fired on three men, killing two, after he was attacked. He had traveled to Kenosha, where he had friends and family, from his home in Illinois less than 30 minutes away, to help protect local businesses, clean up after protests and administer first aid.
Kyle was a fire and police cadet, worked as a lifeguard, trained in first aid and had aspirations to be a first responder. He armed himself with an AR-15 that he was not old enough to purchase, but was old enough to carry.
After the shooting, Rittenhouse was characterized first by the media, then by now-President Joe Biden, as a textbook example of a vehemently racist white supremacist who had cruelly and unrepentantly shot down innocent Black Lives Matter protesters.
As the case exhaustively proved, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. He wasn’t a militia member. He wasn’t a racist. The men he shot were all white.
WATCH: Kyle Rittenhouse tells @TuckerCarlson: “This case has nothing to do with race… I support the #BLM movement…” pic.twitter.com/kjWVKqMM0t
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 22, 2021
And now we have learned that he doesn’t even oppose the Black Lives Matter movement, which was, in fact, only peripherally connected to his case because it took place at one of the now-routine violent riots that have often broken out at night after protests that typically remained peaceful during the daytime.
“This has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self-defense,” he told Carlson in a teaser clip of the interview. “I’m not a racist person, I support the BLM movement. I support peacefully demonstrating.”
“I believe there needs to be change,” he continued. “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 someone.”
I’ll tell you the blunt truth — I get more impressed with this kid by the day.
Few 18-year-olds have had to face so much pressure in their short lives, and, just as he managed to keep his cool and protect himself the night he was attacked by psychotic rioters, he has managed to keep his cool through this whole harrowing process.
And what he told Carlson is exactly it — his case never had to be about race, and it can also teach us a lot about issues in the justice system that all Americans can agree ought to be addressed.
Rittenhouse supports Black Lives Matter — I don’t. While I strongly agree that “black lives matter,” I think BLM the group has started a divisive, racist movement that is rooted in Marxist theory and predicated on glaring misconceptions about racism in policing.
This doesn’t change how I feel about the Rittenhouse case one iota, however, because the case was, again, never about race.
It was about an individual who was attacked by a violent mob and defended his life. Black, white, left-leaning, right-leaning, anyone who finds themselves in this position has a right to defend their lives and with that I will always agree.
In the wake of the Rittenhouse verdict, the left quickly adopted the trope that if Kyle had been black, he never would have had such a speedy trial, much less been acquitted — that is, if he hadn’t been shot dead in the street by police that very night.
Even if this were true (and a verdict reached for a black man in Florida the very same day as Rittenhouse’s begs to differ), it would in no way make Kyle’s verdict incorrect.
It would be a travesty of justice if a black man were found guilty of the exact same actions that Kyle took, and I’d be willing to bet that 100% of principled Americans who support the Rittenhouse verdict would agree, and emphatically so.
The left wants you to believe this case is about race, that it’s about racist Americans and their opposition to the assertion that “black lives matter.” The movement itself is radically ideological, and contrary to what the left tells you, supporting BLM is far from the only way to support black lives, civil rights or racial equality in the United States.
Those who supported Rittenhouse or oppose violent rioting are made up of Americans of all ethnic identities and political persuasions who stand with the regular, law-abiding business owners and residents of cities that get ravaged by a very unpeaceful protest movement.
I disagree with the group Black Lives Matter, but I will also gladly concede that many people who are associated with the group’s broader movement oppose the violence and rioting, too.
I doubt many remember the infuriating clips from 2020 of black protesters in Minneapolis admonishing white antifa members not to spray paint “Black Lives Matter” on buildings in their name.
I remember the massive, legitimately peaceful protests that came after George Floyd’s death that were quickly overshadowed and undermined by the opportunists and anarchists who destroyed Minneapolis by night. Like Rittenhouse, I fully support every single person’s right to peaceful assembly, no matter what they believe, as long as it does, in fact, remain peaceful.
Rittenhouse’s actions on the night of Aug. 25, 2020, meanwhile, only have anything to do with race if you believe that the only way to protest perceived racial injustice is by criminal violence against entirely innocent, unrelated parties, and that all violence committed for such a purpose is valid and defensible — which is, sickeningly, the narrative of many top left-wing figures.
It’s time for Americans to wake up to the division establishment media and progressive politicians are sowing among us for profit and political pandering.
We are better than this as a nation — better than either the vehement racist or outraged rioters the narrative pushers insist we all must be.
The Rittenhouse case, I pray, and now Rittenhouse himself and his calm, articulate words, can break the Matrix. We can get to a place where Americans will stop allowing themselves to be divided on such fallacious lines.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
