Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly departed the stage during an appearance at the University of Memphis on Wednesday, after he was confronted about comments made by Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk.

Rittenhouse was invited by the collegeā€™s Turning Point USA chapter to speak at the campus. However, the event was met with backlash from a number of students who objected to Rittenhouseā€™s presence.

The 21-year-old gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, heĀ shot and killed two menā€”Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, as well as injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutzā€”at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He said theĀ three shootings, carried out with a semi-automaticĀ AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. TheĀ Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest where the shootings took place was held afterĀ Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer.

  • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Thereā€™s a very simple way to answer this sort of question that was posed ā€” by condemning the blatant racism of the statements themselves while acknowledging he didnā€™t know if Kirk had said them ā€” and he decided not to do that.

    • aidan@lemmy.worldM
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      9 months ago

      The issue is he couldnā€™t know at that moment if what the students said or their portrayal of it is accurate. Furthermore, people canā€™t just instantly reach informed conclusions about things, a lot of people need, yk time to think. If I try to think about something on the spot Iā€™ll just stutter and not make any sense

      • akakunai@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        ā€œI am not aware of these comments or their context, but if saidā€”yes, I agree they are racist.ā€ Not hard.

        • aidan@lemmy.worldM
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          9 months ago

          Thatā€™s easy to say in retrospect, itā€™s hard for a lot of people to answer something they didnā€™t expect on the spot, even if they know the answer

          • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Rittenhouse isnā€™t some random dipshit that got cornered (ironically, a favourite of the likes of Crowder and Shapiro until they realised even students embarrass them) - heā€™s the Daily Wireā€™s spokesperson for crossing state lines to manufacture a situation to murder your political opponents. He chose to speak in front of that crowd, chose to field questions, and chose to run (presumably because he didnā€™t have a gun to kill those he disagrees with).

            • aidan@lemmy.worldM
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              9 months ago

              Yeah what your saying is he is not famous for his speaking skills, which are normal person levels. So I donā€™t see why this is surprising

                  • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    Do you consistently defend people that you admit are unqualified for their job and incapable of doing it - even when itā€™s as essential as bragging about crossing state lines to procure a gun and manufacture a flimsy legal pretext to kill your political opponents, or is this an outlier for you?

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I think you have a point. However, youā€™re referring to later in the exchange. The poster imt responding to is attacking him for claiming he didnā€™t know whether Kirk had said those things. But if multiple people were shouting at him at that point, I can see why he reverted back to ā€œno comment.ā€