Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a MAGA hero after fatally shooting two people and injuring another during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sounded familiar, conspiratorial claims in a recent interview with Alex Jones.
Showing off his Glock 17, he boasted and said that he has faced “thousands” of death threats in response to the outcome of the criminal case surrounding the deadly shooting.
“I’ve had people text me that: ‘I am showing up to your house. I’m gonna kill you,” Rittenhouse said.
The host, Jones, who introduced Rittenhouse as “an icon in self-defense,” pointed out that he wasn’t exactly a “soft target.” Rittenhouse agreed, saying that he “exercises his right to bear arms.”
“Are you packing right now?” Jones asked.
Rittenhouse unholstered his weapon and handed it to Jones to admire.
“There’s one in the pipe,” Rittenhouse said.
Rittenhouse became a national figure in 2020 after fatally shooting two men in Kenosha protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man paralyzed after a run-in with a white officer. Rittenhouse, who lived across the state line in Antioch, Illinois, said he was there as a medic. He testified he was acting in self-defense when he killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, then 26.
Rittenhouse said the men were trying to kill him. Rosenbaum, he testified, chased him and grabbed his rifle.
Huber and Grosskreutz joined the chase. Huber struck him with a skateboard, and Grosskreutz admitted to pointing a gun at Rittenhouse, though he said that it wasn’t intended.
Prosecutors contended that, by bringing a deadly rifle into a calamitous situation, Rittenhouse escalated the danger. Jurors disagreed, acquitting him on all charges.
Rittenhouse has turned the tragedy into a cottage industry, writing books, making personal appearances, and doling out often absurd hot takes.
During the interview with Jones, Rittenhouse recycled all the usual MAGA talking points as he tried to rehabilitate his reputation with Donald Trump diehards after announcing on X last month that he was writing in Libertarian Ron Paul’s name for president.
“They’re not even hiding it anymore. They’re pushing their own agenda and say we’re gonna ban free speech. We’re gonna take your guns. We’re going to do all these things, and that’s the left’s narrative,” he said.
The Democrats, he claimed, will try to impose martial law if Trump wins.
“What are people going to do when they shut off all the phones?” Rittenhouse fretted. Progressives, he said, will “take all our guns and disarm us so they can take all the power.”
For the record, Vice President Kamla Harris has called for a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks on gun purchases. “We are not taking anybody’s guns away,” she said.
“I have the right to live,” said Rittenhouse, who said the right to bear arms is “a sacred value, a biblical value” and should not be restricted in any way.
Rittenhouse also accused the Biden administration of orchestrating the recent assassination attempts of Trump.
“They’ve tried to take Trump out twice,” he said, without evidence. “I think they’re going to keep trying. I think they’re going to double down.
Rittenhouse shared a litany of conspiratorial fever dreams supported by little more than internet memes.
He called for the prosecution of Trump’s opponents, falsely asserting there is “legitimate evidence of crimes.”
“We need to be charging them,” Rittenhouse said.
His claims went unchallenged by Jones.
