New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is no fan of Kyle Rittenhouse. He has made that known through many tweets, including some evincing bigotry and a lack of interest in due process.
Jeffries, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, expressed his desire to imprison Rittenhouse indefinitely — the trial and its outcome be damned.
Yesterday, Jeffries tweeted: “Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key.”
It is highly inappropriate for a sitting congressman to publicly call for someone’s indefinite incarceration. It is a reckless and divisive attempt to prompt violence if Rittenhouse is found innocent. And it comes after so much hypocritical, self-important, exaggerated agonizing over the dangers of tweets by politicians inciting violence on Jan. 6.
Also disturbing is that Jeffries has so often called for criminal justice reform and an end to mass incarceration. On June 29, 2020, he tweeted, “End. Mass. Incarceration. Defund the Prison Industrial Complex.” Apparently, Jeffries’s tweet doesn’t apply to everyone equally. Is Jeffries, a man who holds power, judging the powerless Rittenhouse not based on his innocence or guilt, but because of his race?
House Republicans should take action. They should not let Jeffries’s inflammatory bigotry go without consequence. A core tenet of our country’s justice system is the idea of “innocent until proven guilty.” Jeffries’s tweets violate that notion to its very core. His tweets are an affront to justice, and House Republicans should not let this sort of misconduct stand.
