Lawyers for Kyle Rittenhouse, one of the alleged shooters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, are demanding Joe Biden's Democratic presidential campaign retract their claim that the 17-year-old is a white supremacist in a tweet sent on Wednesday.
The Biden campaign tweeted a video overlaid with the question from Fox News anchor Chris Wallace to President Trump to disavow white supremacists. As the video played, it included a picture of Rittenhouse.
There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night. pic.twitter.com/Q3VZTW1vUV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 30, 2020
Rittenhouse's lawyers tweeted that the Biden campaign needs to make a public retraction:
Formal demand for public retraction is being prepared for Biden/Harris Campaign on behalf of Kyle Rittenhouse.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) September 30, 2020
I also hereby demand that @JoeBiden immediately retract his false accusation that Kyle is a white supremacist & militia member responsible for violence in Kenosha. pic.twitter.com/GrZyE8nI7Z
Deliberately defaming a 17 year old boy without even a pinch of evidence to support the derogation is plainly cold-hearted and callous. https://t.co/SWIKLHiPrc
— Marina Medvin ???? (@MarinaMedvin) September 30, 2020
"There is absolutely no evidence, not even a pinch, of this defamatory accusation that my client Kyle Rittenhouse is a 'white supremacist' — none. My client is a 17-year-old patriotic, dutiful American boy who came to 'help people,' that’s in his own words. These words and his Good Samaritan actions are on videos being shared all over social media from that night in Kenosha," said Marina Medvin, who is also a senior columnist for Townhall and is one of Rittenhouse's criminal defense lawyers.
"There is no evidence of him being a 'white supremacist.' This dangerous storyline was concocted by online trolls and then parroted by mindless politicians and pundits. The flagrant defamation needs to stop. They can retract and apologize, or they can deal with Lin Wood in court. It’s their choice," she continued. "As for the criminal charges, I am not going to address the issues of self-defense before trial. What I will say is this— there are countless lies being spread about Kyle Rittenhouse— lies about him crossing state lines into Wisconsin with a rifle and lies about him coming to Kenosha to shoot people — and these are absolutely false. The lies and propaganda need to stop."
Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three people during the height of the riots in Kenosha. Videos compiled from that night, including video taken by Townhall, shows Rittenhouse running away from Joesph Rosenbaum before being cornered in a car parking lot. An eyewitness said Rittenhouse fired after Rosenbaum lunged for his rifle.
Prior to the first shooting, Rosenbaum was seen being aggressive towards the group of armed civilians who were out protecting businesses from rioters.
Now that it is confirmed Joseph Rosenbaum was one of the people shot and killed by alleged gunman Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, I filmed him earlier in the night taunting the armed civilians, saying, "Shoot me, n***a." pic.twitter.com/Nn2encm78Y
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 27, 2020
After shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse ran down the street and continued to be chased by people from the crowd. Rittenhouse tripped and fell down, prompting some in the crowd to attack him while he was on the ground. Anthony Huber attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard and was shot by Rittenhouse, killing him. Gaige Grosskreutz was then shot in the arm after appearing to point a handgun at Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse then got up and walked past the approaching police convoy and went back to Illinois, where he later turned himself in and is now facing murder charges.