Kyle Rittenhouse’s attempt to brand another accused gunman as “pure evil” backfired almost instantly, triggering a wave of mockery that many critics said dripped with irony.
Earlier this week, Rittenhouse shared an image of Tyler Robinson, the suspect accused in a shooting involving conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and labeled him “The face of a coward. Pure evil.” The post was quickly met with derision on Threads and elsewhere, where users accused Rittenhouse of lacking self-awareness given his own past.
“Irony just went out back and hung itself in the shed,” one influencer wrote while reposting the image.
Others piled on.
“What’s that old expression,‘takes one to know one’?” another commenter wrote.
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“I think Kyle may want to sit this one out,” someone else added.
“Kyle should look in the mirror,” another post read.
Some critics pointed directly to Rittenhouse’s emotional testimony during his 2021 murder trial. “If they put him on the stand, all he has to do is cry like a bi—h and he’ll get off,” one person quipped. Another added, “Is that the kettle calling the pot black?”
Supporters rushed in to defend him, arguing that comparisons between Robinson and Rittenhouse were unfair.
“Are you actually equating a cold, calculated murderer to a person who was being pursued, ganged up on, and attacked while protecting himself?” one supporter wrote.
Another added, “I genuinely can’t believe people are still mad about Rittenhouse. This sh-t is on video. How can you say he went there trying to kill people when he did everything in his power not to use his gun?”
The flare-up over Robinson came as Rittenhouse reemerged on social media after months of relative silence, declaring a full-scale return to public life.
“I’m back on social media, I’m back in the fight, and I’m here to stay,” he wrote on X, sharing photos with his wife.
“For a quick update, six months ago I made the best decision of my life and married my best friend,” he added. “(Bella Rittenhouse), I couldn’t be happier. I love you beautiful.”
She replied simply: “I love you!”
When a supporter congratulated him, Rittenhouse acknowledged his lingering legal troubles. “I’m still being sued for $20 million,” he wrote. “But thankfully the Lord provides.”
He later suggested that what he described as an assassination attempt involving Charlie Kirk helped spur his comeback. “So I’m back,” Rittenhouse wrote. “Not quietly. Not halfway. I’m coming back in a big way.”
But it was his involvement in a Florida homicide case that sparked his most serious backlash yet, including a rare, blistering rebuke from a sitting sheriff.
On Friday, Rittenhouse posted a video from outside the Walton County Jail in Florida defending Michael Rediker, a 44-year-old man charged in a deadly shooting. Rittenhouse claimed Rediker had lawfully acted under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
‘Absolutely Disgusting’: Kyle Rittenhouse Appearance Derails After Angry Locals Raise Hell
“Michael did nothing wrong, and he deserves all our support,” Rittenhouse said in the video, which he pinned to his X account. “We are expecting an outright not guilty under Florida’s stand your ground law.”
The comments prompted Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson to publicly intervene. Resharing the post from the sheriff’s office’s official account, Adkinson tagged both Rittenhouse and his attorney, Anthony Sabatini.
“I’m actually just disgusted with @rittenhouse2a and @AnthonySabatini,” the sheriff wrote before laying out the case facts.
Adkinson later released a video condemning what he called reckless commentary on an active murder investigation.
“I don’t normally do this,” he said. “I don’t normally take the time to speak to public comments on cases, certainly not open cases. But in this particular situation, a murder that occurred yesterday in Walton County, I feel compelled to respond to what I can only call wildly irresponsible.”
The sheriff detailed investigators’ findings, emphasizing that the victim was unarmed and on his own property when he was killed.
“There was a man who lost his life yesterday, a father, a husband with two small children, who was murdered unarmed on his own property,” Adkinson said. “The suspect drove a tractor over half a mile onto the victim’s land, battered his wife in front of witnesses, and when the husband came to help her, he was shot in the face.”
“There was no fight. There was no attack. And as he lay dying on the ground, the suspect stood over him and made comments he will answer for in court.”
Adkinson flatly rejected the idea that the killing could be justified under Florida law.
“Somehow out of that, Mr. Rittenhouse and his attorney have decided this is a great stand-your-ground case,” he said. “I’ll bet my badge on this, it is not. Mr. Rediker will either face the ultimate penalty in the state of Florida or, God willing, the rest of his natural life in prison.”
He closed with a blunt message directed squarely at Rittenhouse and Sabatini.
“I think both of you are jokes,” Adkinson said. “And I don’t think you should make a damn cent off the suffering of someone else. If you don’t like that, you can file it under ‘I don’t really give a damn.’”
WMBB reported that Rediker was arrested on Thursday and charged with one count of open murder, battery, and three counts of aggravated battery.
