Did Kyle Rittenhouse Signal A Potential Lawsuit Against Joe Biden?

Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP, File

The recently acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, and the first part of that interview aired on Monday night. During this portion of the interview, Rittenhouse made some interesting comments regarding Joe Biden.

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“What did you make of the President of the United States calling you a white supremacist,” Carlson asked Rittenhouse.

“Mr. President, if I could say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before you make a statement,” Rittenhouse said.

Carlson then noted that “it’s not a small thing” to be called a white supremacist.

“No,” Rittenhouse replied. “It’s actual malice, defaming my character, for him to say something like that.”

Rittenhouse’s use of the terms “malice” and “defamation” stuck out as curious to me. Both are legal terms, “malice” meaning the intent to cause harm to others without any justification, and “defamation” being a false statement that harms a person’s reputation.

Rittenhouse’s notoriety following the Kenosha riots arguably turned him into a public figure, and public figures must prove actual malice in order to recover damages from defamation. His use of those terms together doesn’t seem coincidental.

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Related: Let’s Get One Thing Straight: The Kyle Rittenhouse Trial Is Not About ‘White Supremacy’

Joe Biden wasn’t alone in labeling Rittenhouse a white supremacist; many in the liberal media did as well. Carlson then noted that a lot of his viewers would like to see Rittenhouse “help make this better by holding some of these liars to account,” and asked him if he plans to do that.

“I have really good lawyers who are taking care of that right now. So, I’m hoping one day, there will be some — there will be accountability for their actions that they did.”

“Okay, so you’re intent on not — you’re not going to let that go.”

“Like I said, I have really good lawyers who are handling that.”

Did Rittenhouse suggest that a lawsuit against Joe Biden might be coming? After Rittenhouse was acquitted, his lawyer Mark Richards blasted Biden for his past comments. “President Biden said some things that I think are so incorrect and untrue, he’s not a white supremacist.” Public officials like Biden often choose not to make public comments about ongoing criminal cases. However, Biden chose to equate Rittenhouse to white supremacists on two separate occasions.

During the presidential campaign last year, Biden equated Rittenhouse to white supremacists on at least two occasions. He featured a photo of Rittenhouse in a video posted to Twitter accusing Trump of refusing to “disavow white supremacists.”

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He also falsely linked Rittenhouse to white supremacists during an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper.

“I don’t know enough to know whether that 17-year-old kid, exactly what he did, but allegedly he’s part of a militia coming out of the state of Illinois. Have you ever heard this president say one negative thing about white supremacists? Have you ever heard it? That’s the reason I got back in this race because of what happened in Charlottesville,” Biden said in a 2020 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

At the very least, a lawsuit against certain media outlets is inevitable. Will Rittenhouse also sue Joe Biden?

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