Bari Weiss has condemned the liberal media and Democrats for convicting Kyle Rittenhouse on a campaign of lies before his case even wen...
Bari Weiss has condemned the liberal media and Democrats for convicting Kyle Rittenhouse on a campaign of lies before his case even went before a jury, laying bare how left-wing outlets and members of Congress pedaled lies about the teenager that have now been disproven at his trial.
Weiss quit the New York Times last year in a row over how woke the paper had become. Now, she has launched a newsletter and is a founding trustee of The University of Austin, an independent school in Texas that she says will serve as an antidote to the left-wing colleges in America that have lost their way.
Writing for her Substack newsletter Common Sense with Bari Weiss, the former New York Times columnist admitted that she assumed - like many others - that Rittenhouse had driven across state lines, armed with an AR-15 rifle on August 2020 because he was a 'racist' vigilante looking for a fight.
'It turns out that was mostly wrong,' Weiss writes, adding that it was a campaign of disinformation by Democrats and journalists that gave her the false impression.
'Unless you’re a regular reader of independent reporting...you would have been served a pack of lies about what happened during those terrible days in Kenosha.
'And you would have been shocked over the past two weeks as the trial unfolded in Wisconsin as every core claim was undermined by the evidence of what actually happened that night,' she wrote.
Bari Weiss said she was led to believe that Kyle Rittenhouse was a racist, violent vigilante who merely showed up in Kenosha on August 25, 2020, with a gun to deliberately harm someone, when the evidence at his trial suggests otherwise
Weiss includes examples of mainstream TV hosts like Joe Scarborough - who claimed on Monday: 'Here we have a 17-year-old kid, underage, said he bought an AR-15 because he thought it was cool.
'He drove across state -- had his mother drive him across state lines—he appointed himself a militia member, he goes around and he ends up unloading, what, sixty rounds.'
Scarborough's show, Morning Joe, has a daily average audience of more than 1million.
Weiss also pointed to the reporting of the riots in Kenosha that Rittenhouse told his trial he was trying to protect businesses from.
One CNN strap from that night claimed the riots were 'fiery but mostly peaceful', when more than 100 cars were torched, along with local businesses.
On Monday, Joe Scarborough told his audience of 1.6million: 'He drove across state -- had his mother drive him across state lines—he appointed himself a militia member, he goes around and he ends up unloading, what, sixty rounds.'
Among those to pedal lies about Rittenhouse, says Weiss, was Bakari Sellers, CNN host who said Rittenhouse was driven 'by his momma' across state lines and that he was the 'only person to fire' his weapon
Ayanna Pressley labeled Rittenhouse a 'white supremacist' on August 26, 2020. All that has been proven so far is that he was a Trump supporter, says Weiss
This week Cori Bush made the astonishing claim that when she was matching in Ferguson, she and other protesters were 'shot at' by white supremacists who hid behind a hill. Ferguson Police Chief has since said he does not know what she is referring to
Weiss also included a viral clip of CNN's Bakari Sellers saying this week: 'He crossed state lines. His momma drove him across state lines, dropped him off, so that he could help the cops or do whatever he was doing.
'The only person who fired shots that night was Rittenhouse,' he said.
Rittenhouse did not drive across state lines with his rifle.
He had also been working at a sports center in Kenosha, and it is where his father, grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins live.
That information emerged at the trial, during his own testimony.
He stayed overnight with his friend in Kenosha the night before he was seen in the riots after working a shift at a sports center.
Weiss also included tweets from Democratic congresswomen Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley.
Weiss (pictured) founded Common Sense after herself leaving the New York Times
Pressley tweeted on August 26, the day after the shooting: 'A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15.
'He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines.'
Bush, this week, stunned followers by claiming on Twitter: 'When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us. They never faced consequences.
'If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.'
Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr later said he had no idea what she was referring to.
'To admit that the press, in the main, got just about every key fact in the Rittenhouse case wrong — that he crossed state lines with a gun, that he had the gun illegally, that he had no connection to Kenosha, that he was connected to white supremacist groups — has nothing to do with whether Kyle Rittenhouse should have gone to Kenosha that day.
'It has nothing to do with where one stands on the question of open carry. (I am opposed). Or whether or not a teenager should be allowed to walk around with a semiautomatic rifle. (I find it baffling that this is legal.)' writes Weiss.
Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum (pictured), 36, with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020. A prosecution witness testified that he said 'if I find any of you, I'm going to f****** kill you'
'To acknowledge the facts of what happened that night is not political. It is simply to acknowledge reality.
'It is to say that facts are still facts and that lies are lies. It is to insist that mob justice is not justice.
'It is to say that media consensus is not the equivalent of due process.
'And that pretending otherwise for the sake of political expediency is why the National Guard is now standing watch in Kenosha, bracing for violence once again in the anticipation of a verdict that for many, has already been decided,' she concluded.
The judge in the case told the jury before they started deliberations that they must ignore the opinions of the public, and even President Joe Biden.
Last year, before he'd been elected, Biden called Rittenhouse a 'white supremacist' and demanded that then President Donald Trump condemn him - which he didn't.
This week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the President condemns 'vigilantes' in the street.
The jury has now been deliberating Rittenhouse's case for three days.
Weiss quit The New York Times last year after growing tired of its continued left-leaning bias.
She has now launched a new university, The University of Austin, that will be financially independent and allow students to pursue 'the truth', as an antidote to the woke colleges across the country.
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