A jury may have found Kyle Rittenhouse "not guilty" on all counts, but it appears a key Democrat wants to drag this out further. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, took to his official Twitter account not just to lament the verdict as "heartbreaking," but to claim it "justifies federal review by [the Department of Justice.]"
This heartbreaking verdict is a miscarriage of justice and sets a dangerous precedent which justifies federal review by DOJ. Justice cannot tolerate armed persons crossing state lines looking for trouble while people engage in First Amendment-protected protest. https://t.co/Uh95Uc1Ddo
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) November 19, 2021
In addition to tweeting such fired up language, Nadler tweeted falsehoods when it comes to "armed persons crossing state lines." While Rittenhouse traveled from Antioch, Illinois, which is about 20 miles away from Kenosha, Wisconsin, he testified under oath that the gun he had with him on August 25, 2020 was in the possession of a friend, who was in the state of Wisconsin.
As a Wednesday post from FactCheck.org by D'Angelo Gore pointed out in fact-checking such a claim that the weapon crossed state lines, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) made similar false claims during a November 14 interview on CNN. She also falsely claimed that Rittenhouse's mother drove her armed then 17-year old son across state lines and "should have been detained for child endangerment."
Nadler also claimed that Rittenhouse was "looking for trouble while people engage in First Amendment-protected protest."
However, violent rioting is certainly not "First-Amendment protected." In fact, it's why the jury found Rittenhouse "not guilty" on all charges, as they believed that Rittenhouse killed two men and injured a third in self-defense.
Nadler's tweet had a lot of replies and quoted retweets taking issue with his claims, including from those who pointed out the misleading and false statements.
Always a good idea to get the facts of the case wrong in your tweet calling for the Department of Justice to review the facts of the case
— Ailan Evans (@AilanHEvans) November 19, 2021
@TwitterSupport can you please flag this tweet as misleading and put one of those little sayings under it like you do for pretty much everything else?
— Joseph Johnson (@Joseph2poms) November 19, 2021
Aren't you the guy who poops his pants on national television and believes ANTIFA is a myth?
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) November 19, 2021
Have a seat.
Tell me you didn’t watch the trial without telling me.
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) November 19, 2021
Aftermath of First-Amendment protected protest. pic.twitter.com/s9chOyGoY1
— Mike (@Wonderagain) November 19, 2021
The first amendment cannot tolerate riots, burning, and looting of cities
— $pino (@__spino__) November 19, 2021
A particularly memorable tweet decided to address the issue of crossings, as the user brought in Nadler's view on immigration.
Since when did you care about people crossing borders? You don’t mind when a million plus people cross the Rio Grande into the US in a single year.
— Kristopher Evans (@KristopherEvans) November 19, 2021
Nadler has communicated distorted views on these "First-Amendment protected protests" before. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing in the summer of 2020, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member of the committee, showed video footage of violent protests that occurred that year.
That hearing was on July 28, 2020, almost a month before the riots in Kenosha over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man the media claimed was unarmed, but who himself admitted he had a knife. The hearing is also referenced in Jordan's upcoming book "Do What You Said You Would Do: Fighting for Freedom in the Swamp."
And, as Leah reported on July 27, 2020, Nadler believes Antifa is a "myth," according to a filmed exchange between Nadler and journalist Austen Fletcher.
I ran into Jerry Nadler in DC and asked him to disavow the Antifa violence/rioting in Portland.
— Essential Fleccas ???? (@fleccas) July 27, 2020
His response?
“THATS A MYTH” pic.twitter.com/veImyE2rju
Clearly, Nadler has not learned his lesson since then.
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