Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night revealed that Kyle Rittenhouse and his mother recently visited him at Mar-a-Lago, boasting to Fox News host Sean Hannity that the teenager is a “fan.” Recently acquitted of all charges after fatally shooting two men at a Kenosha protest, Rittenhouse “called and wanted to know if he could come over and say hello,” Trump said.
“Because he was a fan, unlike the other guy!” Trump bellowed, referencing Darrell Brooks, the driver accused of killing six people in the holiday parade attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The former president went on to describe Rittenhouse as a “nice young man” who should “not have suffered through a trial.” He also claimed that the 18-year-old was a victim of “prosecutorial misconduct,” something Trump groused was “happening all over the United States right now because of the Democrats.”
Rittenhouse, who’s become a right-wing cause célèbre, repeatedly said in an interview aired on Tuesday night that he doesn’t want to be anyone’s political icon. Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who scored the first post-trial interview with Rittenhouse, also described the teenager as “not especially political.”
