Government

DHS Rushes To Defense Of Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, As His Lawyer Threatens Biden With Defamation Suit

Or in other words, it's a Thursday in 2020.

By Liz Dye on October 01, 2020 3:48 pm

How are Department of Homeland Securities employees supposed to respond to questions about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who traveled from Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin where he fatally shot two people?

According to an internal memo leaked to NBC, they’re being instructed to say that he “took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners.”

Why it would be acceptable for a minor to cross state lines and deputize himself as a vigilante security guard is unclear. Nor is it clear why federal employees are undermining law enforcement agents in Wisconsin, where Rittenhouse is charged with murder. So much for that LAW AND ORDER the president maniacally scream-tweets every day.

“Kyle was seen being chased and attacked by rioters before allegedly shooting three of them, killing two,” is what your tax dollars are paying federal employees to say, before suggesting alternate shooter theories culled from the wingnutosphere: “Subsequent video has emerged reportedly showing that there were ‘multiple gunmen’ involved, which would lend more credence to the self-defense claims.”

DHS employees would never comment on a pending investigation, but they’re pretty sure the real enemies are those pesky racial justice protesters, AHEM RIOTERS, and the media which would frame a poor, innocent young man.

“What I will say is that Rittenhouse, just like everyone else in America, is innocent until proven guilty and deserves a fair trial based on all the facts, not just the ones that support a certain narrative. This is why we try the accused in the court of law, not the star chamber of public opinion,” they will spontaneously remark, before seamlessly pivoting to blaming the protestors.

“This is also why we need to stop the violence in our cities,” pause for brow furrow and bitten lip, probably. “Chaotic and violent situations lead to chaotic, violent and tragic outcomes. Everyone needs law and order.”

Which is a fair echo of President Trump’s insistence that rightwing militias should “stand back and stand by.” “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem.”

And apparently that somebody is a teenager illegally toting a heavy weapon down the street and pointing it at his fellow citizens.

Meanwhile, Rittenhouse’s attorney Lin Wood has entered the fray to take on the real enemy… Joe Biden.

WHYYYYYYY?

Well, his client’s image waving a gun on the streets of Kenosha appeared for half a second in this ad, which is obviously libelslander most scurrilous.

So now it is PUT IN YOUR HEARING AID time for Joe Biden in this hyper-partisan year of “20/20.”

Why would a criminal defense attorney subject his client to civil discovery in the middle of a murder trial? Look, that’s not important now!

The important thing is that Lin Wood is a completely sane person who is currently on Twitter commenting on his client’s case and threatening to rip the likely next president into shreds and take away his “computer contact lenses.”

Neat-o.

Internal document shows Trump officials were told to make comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse [NBC]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.