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- President Joe Biden defended "the jury system" after a jury on Friday fully acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse.
- A Wisconsin jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all charges related to fatally shooting two men and injuring a third.
- Biden followed up with a statement saying he was "angry and concerned" about the verdict, but urged calm.
President Joe Biden defended a Wisconsin jury's decision on Friday after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges related to fatally shooting two men and injuring a third.
"I stand by what the jury has concluded. The jury system works and we have to abide by it," Biden said to press gathered on the White House lawn Friday.
Biden followed up with a written statement saying that he and many other Americans are "angry and concerned" about the verdict, but urged unity and calm.
"I know that we're not going to heal our country's wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law," he said. "I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy."
Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused to comment on the ongoing trial, but reiterated Biden's position that "we shouldn't have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons."
In September 2020, Biden tweeted out a video of Trump being asked by Fox News host Chris Wallace about "white supremacists" and Proud Boys who'd committed violent acts at protests across the country. Wallace mentioned the shooting in Kenosha, implying that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist. Trump responded by telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."
"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," Biden tweeted.
In January, prosecutors said Rittenhouse posed for photos with members of the Proud Boys and flashed a white power sign in a Wisconsin bar.
Following Biden's statement, an attorney for Rittenhouse, Mark Richards, insisted that his client isn't a white supremacist.
"I'm glad he at least respects the not guilty verdict," he said of Biden.
Many Republican lawmakers have celebrated Rittenhouse as a hero. At least three far-right GOP House members — Reps. Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, and Paul Gosar — have offered Rittenhouse an internship in their congressional offices.
"You have a right to defend yourselves," Cawthorn said in a video celebrating the verdict. "Be armed, be dangerous, and be moral."
source https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-responds-to-rittenhouse-verdict-the-jury-system-works-2021-11