Republican Senator Tom Cotton claimed on Friday that President Biden should apologize for suggesting that 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist.”
Soon after the jury reached a verdict, Biden was asked whether he “stands by his past comments equating” Rittenhouse to white supremacy, but the president refused to provide a straight answer.
“I just heard a moment ago… I didn’t watch the trial,” answered Biden. “I stand by what the jury has concluded. The jury system works, and we have to abide by it.”
Meanwhile, the president appeared to be dissatisfied with the outcome of Rittenhouse's trial. According to an official statement from the White House, issued the same day, "the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included." Biden, however, noted he "acknowledges" the jury's decision.
"We must acknowledge that the jury has spoken. I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us," the president wrote. "I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy."
On Friday, a jury in the Kenosha District Court of the US state of Wisconsin found 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty after shooting and killing two people at a Black Lives Matter protest last year and wounding another. All charges were dropped, as the jury decided that he was acting in self-defense. The jury's decision is final and cannot be appealed.
Following an October 2020 debate with then-president Donald Trump, where the incident was brought up, Biden posted a short video of the shooting, where Rittenhouse could be seen, with a caption saying that Trump "refused to disavow white supremacists" attached.
In August last year, racial justice protests broke out in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city of approximately 100,000 people. They started after Black suspect Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police.