US2 min(s) read
Published 14:10 21 Nov 2021 GMT
Tucker Carlson opened and ended the first segment of his Friday show by praising the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case for reaching the not guilty verdict.
Calling Rittenhouse's homicide acquittal "a wonderful moment", the Fox News host insisted it was a day to celebrate.
Carlson, who on Monday will broadcast the first televised interview with Rittenhouse, showed his producers in the car with Rittenhouse as they drove away from the courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon.
On Friday, November 19, a 12-person jury consisting of seven women and five men found the teen not guilty on all counts after three days of deliberation.
Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020, with an AR-15 rifle, during protests which took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
The teenager, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, had been charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Per BBC News, Rittenhouse had denied all the charges and maintained he acted in self-defense.
In his segment, Carlson said Rittenhouse was a patriot protecting his father's hometown. "The jury confirmed what was obvious from the very beginning. It was a wonderful moment," he said.
He said it showed that "propaganda doesn't always win. Today it was soundly defeated - thank God."
Carlson criticized rival networks for their framing of the trial in racial terms, saying: "It doesn't have anything to do with anything. But it's been a fixation of the Democratic party. They try to racialize everything," he said, accusing them of "trying to whip people into a frenzy".
After hearing the verdict, Rittenhouse himself spoke out as he told Carlson's team: "The jury reached the correct verdict."
"Self-defense is not illegal. I am glad they reached the correct verdict. It's been a tough journey but we made it through. We made it through the hard part," he added.
Carlson also praised the jury for their "enormous moral courage" and described it as "a significant day in US history."
