Far-left Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) faced backlash on Friday for claiming that the judge, jury, and defendant Kyle Rittenhouse were all white supremacists following the jury declaring that Rittenhouse was not guilty on all counts stemming from him shooting three men during a riot last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“The judge. The jury. The defendant. It’s white supremacy in action,” Bush claimed. “This system isn’t built to hold white supremacists accountable. It’s why Black and brown folks are brutalized and put in cages while white supremacist murderers walk free. I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m heartbroken.”
Top responses to Bush’s claim included:
- Stephen L. Miller, podcast host: “She has no idea what any of these words mean and couldn’t explain how any of this was white supremacy if you sat her down and told her to explain it to you.”
- David Hookstead, columnist: “A sitting member of congress is hurt, angry and heartbroken because Kyle Rittenhouse killed a convicted pedophile. Of all the insane takes, this is among the worst.”
- Delano Squires, political commentator: “My problem w/the Left in general and the Afrostocracy in particular is how out of touch they are with the realities of life in America. Black ppl are 13% of the pop. & 50% of homicide victims but the ONLY time they bring attention to a case is when the perp is white. Shameful.”
- David Reaboi, political commentator: “If you think these people don’t want Zimbabwe, you’ve got no idea what time it is.”
- Lisa Boothe, Fox News: “What a liar. All they do is lie to divide. Such evilness.”
- Nate Hochman, political commentator: “If you were critical of Trump because he was undermining faith in our institutions, now would be a good time to speak up about, you know, this.”
- Drew Holden, columnist: “I remain quite curious about what intellectual contortions it takes to determine that a white guy being found not guilty for defending himself against three other white guys amounts to ‘white supremacy in action.'”
- Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA officer: “The Left is, once again, stirring their followers into mass hysteria. Bad things come from stuff like this.”
The Daily Wire reported:
Rittenhouse, who is now 18, lives in Antioch, a northern suburb of Chicago about 15 miles from Kenosha. On August 25 of last year when he was 17, Rittenhouse decided to patrol the downtown Kenosha area alongside other armed men in order to protect a used car dealership from looting and vandalism. The city had devolved into rioting over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.
Rittenhouse took a medical kit and armed himself with a Smith & Wesson M&P15, which is an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle that police say his friend illegally bought for him.
While guarding the used car dealership, he was chased by protesters and ended up fatally shooting two people, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injuring a third, Gaige Grosskreutz. The defendant and the three men he shot are all white.
He was arrested and charged with five felony charges and one misdemeanor charge. The most serious charge was intentional homicide, Wisconsin’s top murder charge, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The others were reckless homicide, attempted homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment, and being a minor illegally in possession of a firearm.
On Monday, the judge dismissed the misdemeanor firearm charge, which was considered the easiest charge for the state to prove. Previously, Rittenhouse was also charged with violating curfew, but that charge was dismissed last week by the judge as well.
This report has been updated to include additional information.