President Joe Biden spoke Friday (November 19) about the not guilty verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse‘s homicide trial.
“Look, I stand by what the jury has concluded,” Biden said following the news of Rittenhouse’s acquittal. “The jury system works and we have to abide by it.”
Rittenhouse, 18, faced five felony charges for the murder of two men and injuring of another last August in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A jury deliberated just over a total of 25 hours over four days to find the accused gunman not guilty on all counts.
Biden spoke to reporters after returning to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a routine colonoscopy.
“I just heard a moment ago,” Biden, 78, said. “I didn’t watch the trial,” he added.
The president was also asked about his comments from September 2020 when he, then-presidential candidate, tweeted a video with Rittenhouse carrying a rifle in it, writing in the caption, “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,” taking a dig at then-President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the tweet from last year and replied:
“What I’m not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial nor the President’s past comments. What I can reiterate is the President’s view is that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons. We shouldn’t have opportunities corrupting peaceful protest by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent anywhere in the country.”
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