Donald Trump Jr. is accusing Democrats of, among other things, "making heroes out of pedophiles" after the death of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the two men Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of killing during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
"The incompetence doesn’t end," Trump Jr., the eldest son of former President Donald Trump, said during an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" Wednesday night, reports Mediaite. "The Democrats are going out and making heroes of pedophiles. You saw this during this Rittenhouse trial. Joseph Rosenbaum, a five-time convicted child rapist. Boys as young as nine that he raped, he can go around with a gun rioting in Kenosha, no problem whatsoever."
But Rittenhouse, "a 17-year-old kid protecting a minority-owned business, cleaning up graffiti, functioning as an EMT, that's the terrorist," Trump Jr. continued. "That's how far the Democratic Party has fallen. It's a disgrace."
However, witnesses testified that Rosenbaum was not armed during the protests the night Rittenhouse shot him. The 18-year-old was acquitted of Rosenbaum's death, as well as of the other shootings, after claiming self-defense.
Rosenbaum's fiance, Kariann Swart, testified during the Rittenhouse trial that Rosenbaum was only carrying a plastic bag with personal toiletries and some papers, not a weapon, reports NPR. He had been released from a hospital on Aug. 25, the day he was killed, after a suicide attempt.
Videos from the incident show that Rosenbaum threw the bag at Rittenhouse, who fired four shots at him, killing him, reports NPR.
The Washington Post reported that Rosenbaum said he suffered from bipolar disorder. Rosenbaum had spent about 15 years, or most of his adult life, behind bars, starting when he was 18, for having had sexual conduct with five preteen boys, and claimed to have been sexually molested by his stepfather.
There is no indication, though, that Rittenhouse would have known any of Rosenbaum's background the night he shot him in Kenosha. Rittenhouse and another witness testified, though, that Rosenbaum was shot after he reached for Rittenhouse's gun.
Trump Jr. also on the "Hannity" program talked about further ways he said Democrats and President Joe Biden's administration are incompetent.
"You have the Afghanistan withdrawal," he said. "I don’t know [if] we’ve seen a worse incident in our country in the last century where we’re abandoning Americans, behind enemy lines, giving said enemy lists of people and biometric data that they can track them down."
Further, Biden is "killing American pipelines while giving Russia that, as my father’s administration did a great job blocking it," said Trump Jr. "So, then we can give NATO more money to protect them from the Russians that they’re enriching with the pipelines, you know?"
He also claimed that Biden's son, Hunter, "must be on the payroll somewhere," adding that "the Democrat Party has fallen so far."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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