Nicholas Sandmann, who has allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars in defamation lawsuits against media outlets, gave insight into what Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted of multiple felonies on Friday, is experiencing.
Sandmann appeared on Fox News on Friday evening in an interview with host Sean Hannity. Sandmann compared what he went through in January 2019 during a confrontation with activists outside the Lincoln Memorial with what Rittenhouse has experienced from biased media outlets and figures.
Sandmann began with explaining what negative media attention at a national level can do to a teen.
“Well, it’s terrible, Sean, and I’ll tell you why. As a 17-year-old, in Kyle’s case, and mine 16, your mind is still developing, and so, to deal with an overload of stress where you have this feeling that half of the country, hundreds of millions of people hate you for something that you’re innocent of, but how you are painted, it can do a lot to you mentally,” Sandmann said. “It takes a very strong will to be able to resist that and keep a level head. I know that Kyle is probably dealing with that right now.”
Sandmann later said that Rittenhouse should sue media outlets for defamation for how he was portrayed before and during his trial, prior to when he was acquitted of all felony charges against him on Friday. Sandmann stopped short of saying Rittenhouse should sue President Joe Biden, however, who suggested over Twitter last year in an ad that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist. Sandmann cited his own experience attempting to litigate over similar accusations. Sandmann said:
I think he should sue the media, but it’s really a personal call that’s up to him. In January, it’ll be three years since everything happened at the March for Life, and I’m still looking at another two years until the cases that go to trial are resolved. So, it’s really a personal call for him. I know he has a lot on his plate on whether he wants to entrench himself in this. But on the topic of Joe Biden, I’ve heard a lot of debate about it, but I think plain and simple that, unfortunately, calling someone a racist or a white supremacist is an opinion protected by the First Amendment. Personally, I know it because many of the claims that we labelled as defamatory were not let in by the judge in federal court, and so I would like to see him go after Joe Biden, I would like to see where that goes, but I don’t think Kyle is in the case where he can be making lawsuits just to see what happens. He doesn’t have the luxury of suing everyone just to see if any of them land.
And on the topic of Rittenhouse suing the liberal media for defamation, Sandmann thinks he should but noted: "It's really a personal call for him. I know he has a lot on his plate on whether he wants to entrench himself in this." pic.twitter.com/l1GNNWLUe7
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 20, 2021
Sandmann’s interview on Hannity follows a November 16 column he wrote commiserating with Rittenhouse and slamming media outlets for misreporting and misrepresenting Rittenhouse to readers.
“This is the problem with liberal media outlets in the United States. They want to get the story first, get the most views, make the most money, and advance the agenda from liberal patrons,” Sandmann wrote. “These outlets cover themselves when they are wrong with small footnotes at the ends of long articles, clarifying that new information has come out and that they have updated their coverage.”