Jen Psaki Refuses to Answer Peter Doocy About Biden Suggesting Kyle Rittenhouse is a ‘White Supremacist’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly dodged questions on Monday from Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy about Joe Biden implicitly characterizing Kyle Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist.”
Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he shot three men, killing two, during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse is facing multiple charges related to the shootings. Rittenhouse’s attorneys have argued that Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, while the prosecution has claimed otherwise. On Monday, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the charge of Rittenhouse being a minor possessing a firearm.
The day after the first 2020 presidential election debate between then-Democratic presidential nominee Biden and then-President Donald Trump, Biden tweeted a video, which included Rittenhouse, with the following 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.”
The Rittenhouse family has reportedly been considering a defamation lawsuit over the president’s comments.
“Why did President Biden suggest that Kyle Rittenhouse, on trial in Kenosha, is a white supremacist,” asked Doocy during the White House press briefing.
Sighing, Psaki replied, “So Peter, 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 for you is the president’s view that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons. We shouldn’t have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent anywhere in the country,” she continued. “As you know, closing arguments in this particular case, which I’m not speaking to, I’m just making broad comments about his own view. There’s an ongoing trial. We’re awaiting a verdict. Beyond that, I’m not going to speak to any individuals or this case.”
Following up, Doocy said, “But the president has spoken to it already and his mom now, Kyle Rittenhouse’s mom, came out saying that the president defamed her son and she claims that when the president suggested her son is a white supremacist, he was doing that to win votes. Is that what happened?”
Psaki responded, “I just have nothing more to speak to an ongoing case where the closing arguments were just made.”
During an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, was asked by host Sean Hannity, “When the then-candidate, now President of the United States, and other elected officials, that don’t know anything about your son refer to him as a white supremacist, I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that he is such a person. When prominent people say that, how did that impact you and how did it impact him?”
“I was in shock. I was angry,” she responded. “President Biden don’t know my son whatsoever. He’s not a white supremacist. He’s not a racist. And he did that for the votes. And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son, he defamed him.”
As Doocy mentioned, Wendy Rittenhouse has described Biden’s remarks as defamation several times, including on Fox & Friends this weekend.
Watch the clip above, via C-SPAN.
