Kyle Rittenhouse visited Donald Trump after being acquitted of homicide and other charges, the former president told Fox News reporter Sean Hannity on Tuesday night (Nov. 23). According to Trump, Rittenhouse and his mother traveled to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida and left “a little while ago.”
“Kyle, I got to know him a little bit. He called. He wanted to know if he could come over and say hello because he was a fan, unlike the other guy,” Trump told Hannity.
During the interview, Fox News broadcast a photo of Rittenhouse posing with Trump.
“He came over with his mother. Really a nice young man,” the former POTUS said.
On Friday (Nov. 19), Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges after fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Speaking with Hannity, Trump claimed the trial was “prosecutorial misconduct.”
“He should have not have had to suffer through a trial for that. He was going to be dead,” he said.
Rittenhouse’s acquittal prompted outrage from many Americans who were following his trial, including the parents of his victims.
“Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son,” John Huber and Karen Bloom, the parents of Anthony Huber, said in a statement. “It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street. We hope that decent people will join us in forcefully rejecting that message and demanding more of our laws, our officials and our justice system.”
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, told reporters on Friday that he stood by the jury’s decision.
“Look, I stand by what the jury has concluded,” he said. “The jury system works, and we have to abide by it.”
Biden later added that the verdict “will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included,” but reiterated that “the jury has spoken.”