The White House tried to defend President Joe Biden suggesting Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist while calling for calm as the country awaits the verdict in the teenager’s homicide trial.
“What I’m not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial, or the president’s past comments,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. “What I can reiterate for you is the president’s view that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons.”
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Psaki also repeated Biden’s opposition to violent or destructive protests, including “rioting” and “burning” of businesses, after Wisconsin activated its National Guard amid closing arguments.
But the White House is in contact with state and local officials, in addition to community leaders, according to Psaki. And the Justice Department has offered deescalation training and contingency planning assistance in case there is a public reaction to the verdict, she added.
“President Biden ran on a promise to bring Americans together and to turn down the temperature on the angry, divisive rhetoric and actions we saw over the past four years. That’s his overarching objective,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand, of course he does, when emotions are high, when passions are high. We’re here to provide support.”
Rittenhouse, now 18, is on trial for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, as well as injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, during the civil unrest that erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020, after the police shooting of black man Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse, then an Illinois 17-year-old, has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and reckless endangering.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy, alleged this week that Biden defamed her son by suggesting he was a white supremacist in the 2020 campaign video tweet.
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“He is not a white supremacist. He is not a racist,” she said. “He did that for the votes. I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son.”
