In the aftermath of the Rittenhouse verdict, much has been said about racism and the rise in assault-weapon vigilantism. But more must be said about Joseph Rosenbaum’s serious mental illness and the sexual offenses he committed.
"I stand by what the jury has concluded," President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all the charges he faced for shooting three people,
Right-leaning Facebook pages and groups dominated the conversation about Kyle Rittenhouse on the platform, with posts praising the verdict, supporting Rittenhouse, and pushing related narratives. These pages earned tens of millions of interactions in one day numbers not seen since January 6 and the early days of the Biden administration.
On November 19, a jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all five charges he faced after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. The acquittal was met with praise from right-wing media outlets and personalities, who had spent months defending Rittenhouse and even hailing him as a hero.
On Facebook, right-leaning pages and group members praised the jury verdict, while also disparaging the victims, calling on Rittenhouse to sue mainstream media outlets and President Joe Biden, praising the jury for being brave and not being intimidated into giving a guilty verdict, and even calling for violence.
The prosecution’s task was to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rittenhouse did not act in self-defense, which was impossible given the testimony from its own witnesses