On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Cuomo Primetime,” host Chris Cuomo reacted to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict by criticizing Wisconsin law and Rittenhouse’s judgment while also arguing that “The jury is not the bad guy. Race is not the bad guy. Politics is not the bad guy.” Cuomo also asked, “have you heard anybody ask why the third person he shot, the man with the gun who was chasing him and pointed it at him and came at him, why he escaped all police scrutiny? None of the people who were angry about this verdict see anything curious about that situation.” Additionally, Cuomo pointed out that none of the people who Rittenhouse shot were shot because they were protesting, they were shot because they were chasing Rittenhouse.
Cuomo began by saying, “[T]here’s plenty to be upset about. It is too easy to kill in this society, and our laws make it so. And yet, there are too many tonight offering a jaundiced view of this case. … And there are no questions here tonight that this outcome is problematic. It is.”
He added, “These calls that I’m hearing and you’re hearing that this jury should have found some way to punish this guy, they’re troubling. Because they ignore the laws at play. The president says he stands by the jury and its conclusion. But many of his supporters are saying this is an injustice because too many other kids get in trouble for way less. Are we about the law or are we about revenge? Saying he was not allowed to have the gun is not true, read the Wisconsin law. You can not like the law, but he was within the rights that the state affords. You can criticize the law. You should. He didn’t violate it. It’s a more relevant question to ask — and I know you’re not going to like this, but if you want to talk about the law, have you heard anybody ask why the third person he shot, the man with the gun who was chasing him and pointed it at him and came at him, why he escaped all police scrutiny? None of the people who were angry about this verdict see anything curious about that situation. Justice is blind, right? So, it should be blind to politics as well, right?”
Cuomo continued, “Again, I’m not happy. There’s nothing to be happy about here. Today’s verdict of not guilty doesn’t mean the actions on August 25 were innocent. They weren’t innocent, by all indications. Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, they’re dead, their lives cut short, their families ruined. Dying because you went to protest a police shooting is not what this country’s about. It’s also not what happened. It wasn’t protesting that got them killed. It was chasing after a guy with a loaded weapon. And it is the laws of Wisconsin that allowed that 17-year-old to carry a weapon that night and it is the law of Wisconsin that creates a ridiculously low bar to defend yourself with deadly force. Gaige Grosskreutz, his right arm is wrecked. But, again, he had a gun that he drew and went at Rittenhouse.”
Cuomo further stated that the law in Wisconsin is “recklessly forgiving” and that “it was gross judgment that took this guy to Kenosha, the decision to take an AR-15 to a situation like this, to hang with a bunch of white would-be protectors, to be ignored by the police, to engage with angry protesters, and to see deadly force with that weapon as his only way to deal with pursuers. They are all bad choices. But it is only the last, what he did when chased, that mattered.”
Cuomo concluded his monologue by stating, “The jury is not the bad guy. Race is not the bad guy. Politics is not the bad guy. This statute is. And there are many like it, a growing number, actually. It’s right akin to stand your ground. It’s absolutely too easy to kill. And, yes, it came too easily to Kyle Rittenhouse. He put himself in a bad situation, for a bad reason, with bad people, and he made bad choices, and he killed people and hurt people. He’s no hero. But beware the politics here. Depending on what team you’re on these days, he’s either a vigilante killer or he’s Captain America. Which is he? Who cares. It’s not the right question. The law isn’t about his character or his politics or his animus, not in this case. It’s about his actions and his intentions and what the facts justified or not under the law. You want a different outcome — and you might — change the standard.”
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