Joe Biden Claims, Without Evidence, Kyle Rittenhouse Is a White Supremacist

Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted a video Wednesday in which he depicted Kyle Rittenhouse — the 17-year-old who shot and killed two left-wing rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month — as a white supremacist, without any evidence.

The tweet claimed — falsely — that President Donald Trump “refused to disavow white supremacists” during the first debate on Tuesday. (Trump said he would do so twice, and complied with Biden’s own demand that he single out the “Proud Boys.”)

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

Ironically, the tweet includes footage of Trump doing exactly what Biden claims he did not do. Moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump: ‘Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups?” Trump responds: “Sure.”

Biden included footage of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — whom he has falsely accused Trump of calling “very fine people” — and other extremists. But among those images, he included a still photograph of Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse is facing murder charges. But there is no evidence whatsoever — at least, none that has surfaced yet — that Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. His lawyer stated in a subsequent interview with Breitbart News Sunday: “Kyle is not a racist or a white supremacist.”

It is unclear whether Rittenhouse obtained his rifle legally, and it is not clear who else he was with in Kenosha, but there is no evidence yet that he has any ties to extremist groups, and Biden did not provide any.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.