Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of ABCâs âThe View,â says Kyle Rittenhouseâs murder trial should be a âred lightâ for white people looking to attend social justice protests because of the message it sends.
On Tuesday, the show featured portions of the closing arguments in the trial. Prosecutor Thomas Binger argued, âOne of the things to keep in mind is that when the defendant provokes the incident, he loses the right to self-defense. You cannot claim self-defense against a danger you create.â
âWhat you donât do is you donât bring a gun to a fistfight ⌠What the defendant wants you to believe is, because heâs the one who brought the gun, he gets to kill,â he added.
Meanwhile, Rittenhouseâs defense attorney Mark Richards argued, âKyle shot Joseph Rosenbaum to stop the threat to his person, and Iâm glad he shot him because if Joseph Rosenbaum had got that gun, I donât for a minute believe he wouldnât have used it against somebody else.â
Goldberg said, âSo the jury is deliberating as we speak. So I mean, how do you see this ending?â
âI think itâs really a red light for white folks coming to help at social justice protests. Because basically what theyâre saying is, âOh, itâs ok to shoot white people too,'â she added.
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Co-host Joy Behar chimed in, âWell, theyâve been saying that with all the school shootings for years now. So thatâs nothing new. I mean, this is a little bit of a different situation.â
As NPR notes, âRittenhouse was 17 years old when he traveled to Kenosha and armed himself with an AR-15-style rifle. It was a night of unrest in the city, sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was left paralyzed after an encounter with a white officer.â
âIn a series of chaotic encounters with protesters that night, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, then minutes later shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, then 26. Rosenbaum was unarmed. Huber was striking Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Grosskreutz was armed with a pistol,â it added.
Rittenhouse has denied that he did âanything wrongâ and testified that he acted in self-defense. Additionally, Rittenhouse said he went to Kenosha to protect private property. Prosecutors argue he went to Kenosha hoping to cause trouble.
