Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Tucker Carlson and Jesse Kelly are among the prominent conservatives under fire for offering support and even praise for an Illinois teen and self-described militia member, who was arrested and charged with the killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse traveled over state lines with a firearm when protests broke out in Wisconsin after the police shooting of an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake. Coulter applauded his actions and tweeted she wanted the teen vigilante to be her “president.” A Twitter spokesperson later told Salon the site had made Coulter remove the tweet, but not before she was dragged online for the sentiment.
Celebrity chef and activist Andrew Zimmern called her comment “heinous.” “Geeks of Doom” publisher and musician Dave the Third called it “pure evil.”
Also Read: Tucker Carlson Defends Teen Vigilante Charged With Murdering 2 Kenosha Protesters (Video)
But Coulter hasn’t been alone in defending Rittenhouse. On his Fox News show Wednesday, Carlson appeared to justify the killing of two people protesting the shooting when he defended Rittenhouse after he was charged with murder for those deaths of those two people. Observers publicly fretted that Carlson’s defense was “despicable” and could “inspire others to take similar action.”
Kelly, a conservative radio host, also attracted the attention of Sleeping Giants, a group known for staging boycotts of conservative media. After Kelly tweeted — and deleted — a prediction that Rittenhouse would win millions in lawsuits and be fighting off “hot conservative chicks” as a result, the advocacy group weighed in: “This is the monster that the social media and tech companies have created. He’s got a show on @YouTube and his podcast is distributed by @ApplePodcasts, @GooglePlay, @spotify & @iHeartRadio. The more violent and racist he gets, the more engagement he gets & the more money he gets.”
In addition, Malkin has been fundraising for Rittenhouse’s legal defense, earning calls from observers to boycott Shopify, the payment platform she’s promoting.
Demonstrations erupted in Kenosha last Sunday night after Blake, who was unarmed and not suspected of a crime, was shot seven times in the back by police in front of his children. On Tuesday night, two of those protesters were killed and a third person injured.
Witness reports hold that Rittenhouse was seen near the protests but not amid them, carrying an assault rifle, before abruptly running unprovoked toward demonstrators just prior to the murders. He was arrested and charged Wednesday.
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