Kyle Rittenhouse’s Team Rips Daily Caller Reporter Who Testified in His Defense for Saying He’s Not a Hero: ‘Pandering to the Left’

Kyle Rittenhouse has released a statement regarding Daily Caller Reporter Richie McGinniss’s recent op-ed titled, I Was in Kenosha Two Years Ago, Kyle Rittenhouse Is Not a Hero.

McGinniss took the stand in defense of Rittenhouse last year as he stood trial for the shooting of two people during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020.

McGinniss was on the ground during the riots in Kenosha reporting for the Daily Caller and witnessed the shootings. He even interviewed Rittenhouse at length before the fatal events took place.

The Newsweek op-ed written by McGinniss tells the story of that night from his perspective:

He was a 17-year-old kid with a semi-automatic rifle, and he was playing cop surrounded by people who didn’t want him there.

Since its release last week, he’s received support and pushback on the piece. He joined Megyn Kelly on the Wednesday edition of SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show to discuss the reaction to the op-ed.

Kelly’s team had reached out to Rittenhouse for comment on the Newsweek article and received three statements in return. Two of which were from Rittenhouse’s spokesperson, David Hancock, and the other was from Kyle himself.

Kelly read them on the air. The first were statements from Hancock, saying, “Kyle wishes Richie the best as he tries to reinvent himself and will always be thankful that Richie was honest and sincere when it mattered the most, not just for Kyle, but for America.”

The next statement, also from Hancock, stated, “Kyle thought waiting until the two-year anniversary of Kenosha to pander to the left with selective storytelling was painfully transparent, but pretending the thugs who attacked him were now victims was hypocritical and unprincipled.”

Next, a message from Rittenhouse, saying, “Unfortunately Richie’s latest story leaves a lot of important details out, including my intentions to help others while I was there, or the fact that I was chased down and assaulted by an armed mob. I am grateful he told the truth when it mattered. His new story doesn’t change the facts of that day. I am forever grateful for the justice system for seeing my innocence in all of this.”

McGinniss responded, saying, “That’s what I was talking about earlier which is if you, you know, step outside of, you know, that trench, then you’re gonna basically be cast into the other one.”

He continued, “During the trial, you know, people were calling me a right-wing conservative, and now people are saying that I’m pandering to the Left with this new piece. I mean, I think that Kyle, you know, that response, I think that that’s a very fair contention. I did include details of why he said he stated that he was there…”

After going into detail about Rittenhouse’s intentions for being in the middle of the unrest that night, he pointed out that for Kyle, it was all just a role:

I used the word playing cop for a reason. And it’s because what I picked up on the moment that I was walking through the streets with him is that he was playing the role of both cop, medic, later on when he had the fire extinguisher also firemen, but it was like he was playing a role. It wasn’t like he was actually, you know, really knew what he was doing in that situation.

Despite the blowback from the piece, McGinniss insists that he wishes the best for Rittenhouse.

“I know that he suffered a lot of trauma as a result of what happened. And I didn’t mean to add on to that, but with that being said, I did have to take the opportunity to state my human perspective of the events that night, because I believe that, you know, down the road, it’s an important perspective and I was right there. And what people got from me prior to that piece was me trying my best to play the role of witness,” McGinniss said.

“So if people don’t like, you know what my opinion is, that’s fine. This is America. I mean, I really appreciate the fact that we’re even able to have, like the fact that we’re on this show right now, and we’re talking about this at such great length and that we actually even got a response from Kyle,” he added.

He even offered to sit down with Rittenhouse over a beer and talk about that night together.

“If Kyle wants to have a beer or sit down on a podcast and talk about it, I’m willing to talk to anybody,” McGinniss concluded.

Listen above via The Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM.