President Joe Biden appealed for unity and calm while sympathizing with those who are “angry and concerned” after a Kenosha, Wisconsin, jury found teenager Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts in his homicide trial amid concerns of violent protests.
Biden said in a statement and in separate remarks to reporters that the jury verdict must be respected.
“While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken,” he said in the statement issued by the White House. “I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.”
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“I stand by what the jury has to say. The jury system works, and we have to abide by it,” Biden told reporters Friday before the statement was issued.
Biden, who was returning to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after his first presidential annual check-up, said he did not watch Rittenhouse’s legal proceedings.
The president also discouraged rioting in response to the Rittenhouse acquittal, saying, “I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy.”
Rittenhouse, now 18, was on trial for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, during the civil unrest that erupted in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, after police shot black man Jacob Blake seven times in the back. Rittenhouse, then a 17-year-old from Illinois, pleaded not guilty to five charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and reckless endangering. All four men are or were white, and Rittenhouse claimed self-defense after ostensibly crossing the border to protect businesses from looters.
Biden, who told reporters his physical examination was “good,” also said he would sign an amended version of his roughly $2 trillion social welfare and climate spending bill, even if it was stripped of its paid family and medical leave provisions.
“I’m going to sign it, period!” he said.
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The House passed its draft of the social welfare and climate spending legislation Friday morning. However, the paid family and medical leave program is likely to be removed or watered down by the Senate, as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin does not endorse it.
