Donald Trump is still trying to walk back his callout to Proud Boys extremists to “stand by” to attack “the left.” But the question that generated that response was actually very specific. What Fox News moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump was whether he was “willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.”
The mention of Kenosha there is notable. Because the primary violence during protests in Kenosha was two people killed and a third wounded by terrorist Kyle Rittenhouse, who traveled across state lines with other armed vigilante militiamen. Following that shooting, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to condemn the 17-year-old killer, and Donald Trump Jr. shrugged the whole thing off as teenage hijinx. The right has gone on to make a twisted hero out of Rittenhouse, with nearly a million dollars raised to defend him against charges related from traveling across state lines with a weapon he wasn’t legally allowed to own to shoot and kill two unarmed people.
But turns out that’s not all. Because when briefing the public on the shootings, officials at Homeland Security were instructed to not just use language that softened Rittenhouse’s crimes, but also protected racist militias.
As NBC News reports, as officials at Homeland Security were preparing to give a briefing on the shootings in Kenosha, they were instructed to play up how Rittenhouse went to the scene to “help defend small business owners."
Even though Rittenhouse had been charged with first degree murder, DHS provided media with an entire series of talking points that presented Rittenhouse as the victim. The talking points referred to Rittenhouse by his first name, with statements such as “Kyle was seen being chased and attacked by rioters ...” Some of these talking points weren’t just defensive of Rittenhouse, they seemed to be making a case for his innocence, such as one saying, “Subsequent video has emerged reportedly showing that there were 'multiple gunmen' involved, which would lend more credence to the self-defense claims." The talking points actually instruct officials to not commit to an investigation of Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse’s shootings took place on the third night of protests following the police shooting of unarmed Black man Jacob Blake. Following the shooting, there were several nights in which multiple blocks of the small city were damaged by fires. Many local protesters suggested those fires were being started by people who, like Rittenhouse, traveled there from outside the area to create a confrontation.
Rittenhouse, who walked past police hurrying to the scene even though he had a rifle slung around his neck and was holding his hands up in surrender, was a Trump supporter who frequently posted pro-Trump statements on Facebook, as well as vocal support for “Blue Lives Matter.” Rittenhouse was part of the Facebook group “Kenosha Guard Militia.” He answered that group’s call for “Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs.” Rittenhouse came to Kenosha from Antioch, Illinois, traveling with two other armed militia members.
A second set of Homeland Security talking points instructs them to correct media reports depicting the group “Patriot Prayer” as racist. The alt-right militia group has been a big supporter of Trump and led pro-Trump rallies in Portland and scheduled one of their rallies to be timed with the racist gathering in Charlottesville. A man associated with the group was shot in Portland just days after the Kenosha shooting.
Exactly where these talking points originated is not clear, but considering how well they match the other messages coming from the White House, it isn’t hard to guess.