Rittenhouse: 'Self-Defense Is Not Illegal'

President Biden, former President Trump also offer their reactions to Wisconsin teen's acquittal
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2021 6:00 AM CST
Rittenhouse: 'Jury Reached the Correct Verdict'
Kyle Rittenhouse enters the courtroom to hear the verdicts in his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday.   (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)

It was an emotional day Friday for Kyle Rittenhouse after he was acquitted for the shootings of three men in Kenosha in 2020, but the Wisconsin teen pulled himself together to chat with Fox News' Tucker Carlson afterward. The 18-year-old's reaction to the day's events: "The jury reached the correct verdict. Self-defense is not illegal," he said from the back of a car, in a short clip from their interview that Carlson aired on Tucker Carlson Tonight, per the New York Post. "I'm glad that everything went well. It's been a rough journey, but we made it through it. We made it through the hard part."

Rittenhouse says he has bad dreams "every single night" about his fatal shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, a night in which he also injured a then-26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz. "It's scary ... because the dreams feel so real and they're not the same at all, they're all different—they're the different scenarios that run through your head," he noted. "I'm alive, but what could have happened?" The Post notes that Carlson is set to play more of the interview on Monday's show.

Two big names weighed in after the verdict. "Congratulations to Kyle Rittenhouse for being found INNOCENT of all charges," former President Donald Trump said in a statement, per the Hill. "It's called being found NOT GUILTY - And by the way, if that's not self defense, nothing is!" The current president, Joe Biden, also offered his thoughts. "Look, I stand by what the jury has concluded," Biden told reporters after the verdict, per CNN. "The jury system works, and we have to abide by it." He added in a later statement, however, that the decision "will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included." (More Kyle Rittenhouse stories.)

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