Rep. Cori Bush is likening the possibility of an acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse to a highly questionable claim about anti-police protests in Ferguson, Missouri, seven years ago.
The first-term Missouri Democrat made the comments before a verdict has been reached for Rittenhouse, who is standing trial for shooting three people, two of them fatally, at protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.
“When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us,” Bush tweeted on Monday. “They never faced consequences. If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.”
Bush’s claim about the Ferguson protests, following the police killing of Michael Brown Jr., drew strong criticism.
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Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr. told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he does not know of any record of such an incident taking place.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he told the newspaper in reference to the tweet. McCall became the Ferguson police chief in July and was previously chief of the nearby Berkeley Police Department.
Bush has called for the conviction of Rittenhouse since the Kenosha shootings in the summer of 2020 when he was 17. Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors said he instigated conflict as a “wannabe soldier” who was “looking for trouble.”
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The Kenosha protests broke out after a black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white police officer in the city. The case became a flashpoint in national debates about racial justice and policing. Rittenhouse is white, as were the men he shot.
Bush is far from the only lawmaker who has weighed in on the trial. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called for Rittenhouse to be put in jail.
“Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key,” Jeffries tweeted as the trial began.
But Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Thomas Massie have argued Rittenhouse is not guilty.
