The White House is refusing to apologize for President Biden’s depiction of cleared teen Kyle Rittenhouse as a dangerous white supremacist.
Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked Tuesday if “the president would ever apologize” to Rittenhouse for his comments, which the teen this week branded “actual malice” and “defaming my character.”
But Psaki deflected, saying it was “about a campaign video released last year that used President Trump’s own words during a debate as he refused to condemn white supremacists and militia groups.
“And President Trump … didn’t just refuse to condemn militia groups on the debate stage, he actively encouraged them throughout his presidency,” she said.
“So what we’ve seen are the tragic consequences of that — when people think it’s OK to take the law into their own hands instead of allowing law enforcement to do its job,” she said.
“And the president believes in condemning hatred, division and violence. That’s exactly what was done in that video,” she said of the clip viewed more than 3.7 million times on Biden’s official presidential Twitter.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy pressed the White House press secretary further, stressing that Biden’s claims that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist and part of a militia were not “proven in the trial,” which ended with the teen acquitted of all charges.
Psaki smiled when Doocy pointed out that “Rittenhouse is saying that the president had actual malice in defaming his character.”
“The president spoke to the verdict last week,” Psaki stressed, referring to a statement in which the commander-in-chief suggested he was “angry and concerned” at the jury’s verdict.
“He has obviously condemned the hatred and division and violence we’ve seen around the country by groups like the Proud Boys and groups that that individual has posed in photos with,” Psaki said.
Psaki was referring to a photo taken this past January that showed Rittenhouse posing with purported members of the Proud Boys in a Wisconsin bar and making the “OK” hand gesture, which is commonly associated with white supremacist groups.
Prosecutors were barred from entering the photo into evidence at Rittenhouse’s trial.
In an interview with NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield that aired Tuesday, Rittenhouse claimed the photo was “set up by my former attorney [John Pierce] who was fired because of that, for putting me in situations like that with people I don’t agree with.”
“I didn’t know that the OK hand sign was a symbol for white supremacy just as I didn’t know those people in the bar were Proud Boys,” Rittenhouse added.
“I thought they were just a bunch of, like, construction dudes based on how they looked.”
