The Great America Show - RITTENHOUSE： “ACQUITTED”—STILL FIGHTING!

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00:01:14.940 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs. Welcome to The Great America Show. It is great to have you with

00:01:22.800 us. The Republicans in the House holding on to a majority by a slender thread after a series of

00:01:29.120 events this week. The expulsion of George Santos, the soon-to-be departure of Bill Johnson, who's

00:01:35.560 taking a job as president of Youngstown State University, and now former Speaker Kevin McCarthy

00:01:41.320 announcing he will leave at the end of the year. He never seemed to quite get over getting fired.

00:01:47.720 Congressman Matt Gaetz, who led the efforts to have McCarthy fired, took to his ex account the

00:01:53.740 other day to get one last jab at McCarthy, telling the former Speaker that Nancy Pelosi at least had the

00:01:59.760 guts to serve out her term after losing control of the House. I don't know anyone else who would 0.95

00:02:05.380 just say, well, if I can't run the place, I'm going to leave. Nancy Pelosi, for all her flaws, 1.00

00:02:10.620 and there are many, she at least stuck around. She didn't hurt her team by saying, well, if I can't

00:02:17.240 be the quarterback, I'm just going to take the ball and go home. That seems to be what we're getting

00:02:22.020 from Kevin McCarthy. This is not an act of patriotism or moving on to the next fight. It is an act of abject

00:02:28.740 selfishness, and it is revealing that if Kevin McCarthy can't swing the gavel and be in charge

00:02:35.200 and make the decisions, that he's not willing to be a team player. For all the criticism I've received

00:02:41.000 about not being a team player, I'm here. I'm doing the work. I'm taking votes. And the Republican

00:02:46.520 establishment might not like how I vote all the time, but I'm not facilitating a path to hand power

00:02:53.760 to the Democrats. That would be more in line with what we see from the former speaker who is on his

00:02:59.900 way out the door. Well, we often talk about the Republican Party and its many fractures.

00:03:05.180 It seems the talk never ends, whether about the weak-kneed rhinos who oppose a Biden impeachment

00:03:11.560 or most recently expelling Congressman George Santos without due process. It is simply an expression

00:03:19.040 of a huge problem within the Republican conference. The Marxist Dems Supreme, that is President Joe 0.69

00:03:26.220 Biden, his approval rating has hit a brand new low. How much lower can it go, really? According to a new

00:03:33.280 CNN poll, Biden's approval rating in November was 37 percent, down two points since October, the lowest

00:03:40.280 since he assumed office in 2021. And his polling on voters' top issue, that is the economy, not much

00:03:47.740 better. Coming in at 33 percent, the man is absolutely struggling, cognitively, physically,

00:03:53.660 and in the polls. Well, our guest today is Kyle Rittenhouse. In August of 2020, when Kyle was 17

00:04:02.060 years old, his life changed forever. Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioting in the summer of love all 0.99

00:04:09.580 across the country, costing America hundreds of millions of dollars as they burned down buildings,

00:04:15.140 destroyed cities all over the death of George Floyd. On August 25th of that summer, in the midst of

00:04:22.280 protests and riots that got out of hand, Kyle had to defend himself. He shot three men, killing two of

00:04:28.960 them, as he was on an armed citizen's peacekeeping watch in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was acquitted,

00:04:36.020 but his life, he says, will never be the same. And Kyle is with us here today. Kyle, I have to say it's

00:04:42.100 great to have you with us here, young man, and to have you on the show and to talk about your life

00:04:48.080 since, well, 2020, and frankly, the country's life as well. I'm thrilled you've come out with a new

00:04:55.020 book. It's called Acquitted, folks. It's available for pre-order at writtenhousebook.com. I want to get

00:05:01.880 that out there right away, writtenhousebook.com. And I think people are going to really support your

00:05:09.100 book. I think learn a lot from it. We recommend it to you highly, folks. Let's turn to, right now,

00:05:15.380 what is probably on the minds of most of our audience. Just what is a 20-year-old Kyle

00:05:21.040 Rittenhouse doing after the past three years right now?

00:05:26.100 Well, I work nine to five, wake up in the morning, go to work. Right now, I'm on a little bit of a media

00:05:32.400 tour, helping promote my book. You can get that book at writtenhousebook.com. It's available for

00:05:38.900 Pre-Order Today. That's what I'm doing. I'm just trying to live as normal as a life as possible.

00:05:47.160 And how normal would you say your life is?

00:05:51.020 Not very normal. I would say it's not very normal. It's hard to go out. I get recognized a lot. I get

00:05:59.140 a lot of people that want to take pictures with me. I get a lot of messages on social media, death

00:06:04.260 threats, and a bunch of other type of messages of people saying, hey, we're going to come find you.

00:06:11.040 We know where you're at. Stocker type stuff. That's just some of the stuff I deal with on a

00:06:17.120 daily basis. And I don't think that's a normal thing I deal with. No, it really isn't. It really

00:06:22.300 isn't normal. And I suspect it's about as normal as it's going to be for you

00:06:27.520 through your life. But I think also on the positive side, you're running into a lot of

00:06:34.360 very good people. Patriots, good Americans, working men and women and their families,

00:06:41.360 a community wherever you are that I think will embrace you in most cases. There are exceptions,

00:06:48.020 and usually those are in big cities, as we all know. Have you found that to be your experience?

00:06:54.360 Oh, absolutely. I've found a lot of support and a lot of great patriots I've met. I made a lot of

00:07:01.220 good friends through this whole ordeal. And it's taught me who to really trust and who I can count on

00:07:07.520 when I need to count on somebody. That's one of the toughest lessons for anybody in life to learn,

00:07:13.680 anyone, irrespective of their experiences. Trust is a huge issue in our society right now.

00:07:20.420 It's very difficult for any of us to trust anyone right now. Would you agree with that?

00:07:27.240 A hundred percent. Absolutely. Everybody has an ulterior motive, and you don't know what that

00:07:34.660 motive is. You don't know if they just really genuinely want to support you or if they want

00:07:38.920 to make money off of you or what. Right. And the idea that there is so little trust,

00:07:46.780 it's getting worse year by year. During the pandemic, everyone was more insular. Our kids

00:07:54.200 in schools. I mean, the teacher unions have so much to answer for. The Marxist Dems that run the

00:08:01.940 Democrat Party have so much to answer for, because the impact of that is going to be lasting for these

00:08:08.040 kids who were in school at that point through. It's going to take them a long time to catch up.

00:08:12.360 I'll put it that way. But I think it's also going to take time for American society to catch up with

00:08:17.500 where it was before then as well. We went through in 2020, as you well know, a devastating period in

00:08:26.380 this country's history, and it's ignored. We have election that were called election deniers because

00:08:31.820 the election was rigged. But no one wants to talk about Antifa, BLM, the summer of love, the rioting,

00:08:40.280 the arson, the protests and demonstrations. It's as if that was the strategy by the Marxist Dems for

00:08:48.220 a six, seven-month period. That goes away, and up comes the next level of agitation and

00:08:58.060 provocative conduct on the part of the left, including murders and riots and burning buildings

00:09:06.820 to the ground. Your thoughts about that period and how much of it stays with you?

00:09:14.080 Well, absolutely. 2020 was a very difficult year for all of us. I was forced to defend myself

00:09:23.000 against the rioters, people trying to kill me, people who threatened to kill me. But I also see

00:09:28.060 the effects that it had on our country of what happened in Minnesota, what happened in Wisconsin,

00:09:34.120 Chicago, New York, Washington, of these cities just being torched and burned down. Look at Seattle,

00:09:40.660 Portland, for an example. You can't even go to Portland anymore because they look for an excuse

00:09:46.160 to riot for almost anything. It's just, it's not. I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:09:53.400 It's not the same world that I grew up in. It's not the world to where you could actually walk down

00:09:57.800 the street and not have to worry if a riot's going to kick off.

00:10:01.220 Yeah, it's hard to believe sometimes it's the same country. It's difficult for all of us,

00:10:07.740 in particular folks in my generation, baby boomers who've seen so much over the course of their lives.

00:10:15.180 To see this particular moment is disappointing. It's sickening in point of fact. And to look at

00:10:23.880 the government that is so divided over basic things like the constitution, give us your sense

00:10:31.100 from that night back in August of 2020, what you've learned in just those few years that you've

00:10:42.880 traveled, because it's been a remarkable journey that you've been on.

00:10:46.880 Oh, absolutely. I'm still, I'm still growing up. I'm still learning. I'm only 20 years old.

00:10:53.820 Some of the lessons I have learned is one, don't trust, don't trust anybody you just met that comes

00:10:59.440 out and promises you the world because most likely they aren't going to give you the world if they

00:11:04.120 promise it. A lot of politicians, they're only telling you what you want to hear, but then you

00:11:12.560 look at their voting records, you look at their voting history of what they voted on and the bills 0.99

00:11:16.740 they supported and they suck. A lot of people enjoy being told like, I'm going to do this, 0.97

00:11:25.480 that, and that for, to help you. And then you look and you see they voted. Oh, well, if you read this

00:11:31.120 bill, it really supported banning that. And it does this and it takes away that right. Not a lot of

00:11:37.700 people want to look into that or do the hard research. Yeah, it's true. And covering, by the way,

00:11:44.200 those folks you're talking about for a good long while now, as a journalist of one sort or the

00:11:50.560 other, I can tell you, it's not getting any better. It didn't start. We didn't start in very good shape,

00:11:57.860 but it actually did get worse. We're talking with Kyle Rittenhouse and he's got a brand new book.

00:12:03.740 It's acquitted. We recommend it to you highly. We're going to take a quick commercial break

00:12:07.940 and we'll talk about the lasting impressions of 2020 with Kyle Rittenhouse, the impact on his life.

00:12:14.540 We'll be right back. Stay with us.

00:12:21.680 We're back now talking with Kyle Rittenhouse and he has a new book, Acquitted. We recommend it,

00:12:27.300 as I said, highly to you. And Kyle, the book, you're 20 years old. You've seen a lot and you've

00:12:35.160 experienced a lot and you've been beat up pretty good at various points, put in situations that no

00:12:43.160 one would envy, including having to defend yourself in the midst of a riot or in court, for that matter.

00:12:51.880 Give us your sense in the book, the reason for writing it and the point that you want to make with

00:12:59.500 it. Well, Lou, there was just so many stories about me that weren't true. There was media stories

00:13:05.040 that people were believing in and just people were saying things that were just false. And I just

00:13:11.720 wanted to come out there and set the record straight. A lot of people say that I grew up

00:13:16.200 privileged and I had everything handed to me, which is just not true. I grew up in government

00:13:21.480 subsidized housing and homeless with a mom working 80 hours a week to put food on the table and having

00:13:26.960 a drug addict dad. It wasn't easy to grow up. Well, that's, you know, I think that right now

00:13:34.060 there are people saying, my gosh, I had no idea because they assumed a middle class life for you

00:13:41.320 out in the Midwest. And I would guess, and I'll speak only for myself, I would never have guessed

00:13:49.740 that was your background. But I know it's often hard to guess backgrounds, but even harder when

00:13:57.300 the national left wing media goes after a narrative and wants to identify you for that

00:14:03.980 narrative. And certainly that was, you know, if that had come out largely and brightly in the moment

00:14:10.540 in 2020, I think history would have been a little different for Kyle Rittenhouse. I think you wouldn't

00:14:17.060 have had quite the same treatment. Do you? I don't know. I don't know how it would have treated.

00:14:28.000 The treatment would have been, I know the government, the prosecuting agency knew that I wasn't rich and

00:14:32.860 that I grew up on government subsidized housing. They knew my entire background. The media could

00:14:37.620 have figured it out. It's not that hard to figure out that my dad was a drug addict if you just do a

00:14:42.120 simple background check. Right. Well, when I said it would have been different, I'm talking about if

00:14:49.440 people had known that. We now know what the government chooses to let the American people

00:14:55.400 know is very seldom the truth and very seldom even remotely motivated by the public interest.

00:15:05.060 Your thoughts about, do you get into this in the book, your view about what the role of government

00:15:10.140 and the way government has treated you and those you care about?

00:15:14.440 I don't get too much into it. I talk a little bit about political persecution and how, like,

00:15:20.260 I spent 87 days in jail for defending myself and how I was put on trial for also defending myself.

00:15:28.760 And I talk a little bit about that and how it was a scary, dark time in my life.

00:15:33.320 Are you over it? Does the pain still stay with you?

00:15:41.300 Absolutely. I have nightmares almost every night about it. And there's nights where I'll be a good

00:15:46.740 night. There's nights where I'll be a bad night. But the fight still isn't over. I'm facing three

00:15:52.840 civil lawsuits in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. So I'm still being sued for defending myself.

00:15:58.820 That's really the way to say it, too, isn't it? You're being sued for defending yourself.

00:16:04.660 Can you tell us a little bit about the plaintiffs in those suits? Who are these people

00:16:08.820 who want to take another pound of flesh from Kyle Rittenhouse?

00:16:16.700 Well, I'm being sued by the state of Anthony Huber, by his father, John Huber. And they're suing me for

00:16:23.980 a list of things. Half the charges that they put on the complaint don't even make sense.

00:16:31.800 They're suing me for I don't know why they're suing me, but it's on video that I was attacked

00:16:38.260 by Anthony. He hit me in the head with a skateboard twice. Being sued by Gage Grosskreutz in the Eastern

00:16:44.300 District of Wisconsin as well for a bunch of other charges that don't make sense. And he's the one who

00:16:51.460 pointed a gun in my face. In his complaint, it's kind of funny because in his civil lawsuit complaint,

00:16:56.520 he doesn't mention the fact that he had a gun at all. There's not one mention of it.

00:17:00.260 They just magically left that part out. And I think that's a pretty important part.

00:17:05.920 I'm also being sued by Joseph Rosenbaum. I can't talk too much about that case at the moment, though.

00:17:12.500 You're being sued by whom?

00:17:14.280 Joseph Rosenbaum, the first guy who attacked me.

00:17:16.540 Right. I can't talk too much about that because we're doing some investigation into that lawsuit to

00:17:21.420 work on getting it dismissed.

00:17:23.200 Well, that's understood. And your legal team, how do you feel about them? How good are they? And

00:17:30.100 how good do you feel about your chances of prevailing?

00:17:34.600 Well, Mark got me acquitted in the criminal trial. He's representing me in the civil. So I feel pretty

00:17:39.400 good about it. Truth always comes to light. And no matter what happens, I know God will always be

00:17:44.560 with me. And it's God's plan no matter what.

00:17:47.300 You know, you just said two important words, truth and God, and they go together. And they're

00:17:55.380 an unbeatable combination. Kyle, we're going to come right back with you, folks. We're going to

00:17:59.720 take a quick break. We'll be right back after these few quick words. Stay with us.

00:18:04.340 We're back. We're talking with Kyle Rittenhouse. And Kyle, I want to just remind everybody in the

00:18:16.080 audience, or perhaps for the first time they may know this, you were acquitted in November of 2021,

00:18:24.080 almost a year and a half after the incident. President Biden issued a statement saying he was

00:18:32.120 angry about that innocent verdict. You were what? Were you 18 at that point?

00:18:38.080 Yes, sir. I was 18. And I saw that statement. Joe Biden issued two statements. He, his first

00:18:44.500 statement, I think he was clueless as normal. And then his press people yelled at him. His first

00:18:49.660 statement was, we must stand with the jury's decision and the verdict. And that was the correct 0.89

00:18:54.340 statement that should have been stayed. And then he came out with the second statement saying he was

00:18:59.520 angry and disappointed. That sort of went in the wrong order. But as you suggest,

00:19:06.580 perhaps a predictable order for President Biden. With all of this going on, the media after you in

00:19:14.160 every way, what is your sense of where the country is headed? Our media is failing us. The government is

00:19:21.380 failing us. We are watching the Marxist take over. Well, the Marxist Dems and the Democratic Party and

00:19:26.860 deep state are in control of the federal government from, I mean, across the board. What are the odds,

00:19:33.900 one, that we can get President Trump back in the White House to clean up this vast, deep mess in the

00:19:41.480 swamp? You know, honestly speaking, Lou, I don't know if Trump is going to get back in the White House.

00:19:48.520 I think that our political system is so rigged. And there's just so many things that you see what

00:19:56.220 they're doing to him right now. They're putting him on trial right now. And I know God's going to

00:19:59.680 stand with him. But I think a jury is going to be so scared to acquit him. I think the judges are going

00:20:05.440 to drown him in legal, legal bills. And I think they're going to try to throw him in prison. I don't

00:20:12.880 know how that will work with a former president being put in prison. But I just don't see. I try

00:20:19.500 to find a little bit of hope. But sometimes it's very difficult where you see the political

00:20:24.640 atmosphere we're in. I don't think it's going to be easy for President Trump or any conservative to

00:20:30.380 win this election. Well, I have to say I agree with you about my concerns that he can be elected

00:20:36.560 in a country that permits a president to be politically persecuted for eight years with

00:20:43.120 not one finding of wrongdoing against him at any one point, and all of it motivated by

00:20:48.720 that president's political enemies and opposition, the Democrat Party, the deep state. And to imagine

00:21:00.460 that the Marxist Dems won't try to rig this election in every way possible, I just can't

00:21:07.520 get there. I think for them, it's a 24-7 enterprise to protect Joe Biden so that they can protect

00:21:14.240 their power that they hold over the federal government, our Congress, our Senate. One way or

00:21:22.600 another, the Dems are winning out, don't you think?

00:21:25.420 Oh, absolutely. And this is an unpopular belief, but I think the Democrats, specifically Joe Biden,

00:21:32.560 is trying to drive us into a state of war. We already see that with Israel and Ukraine. 0.98

00:21:37.920 I think they're trying to drive us into a state of war with someone just so they can be like,

00:21:43.960 oh, we can't have a presidential election. It's not safe to go outside. President Biden,

00:21:48.020 President, four more years.

00:21:49.060 One of the things that people were talking about is sort of sardonically, sarcastically,

00:21:57.160 but Biden was very upset with the Israel war because that was taking attention away from his

00:22:04.060 preferred war, which was Ukraine. I have to say, to listen to people like Lloyd Austin, the Secretary

00:22:13.220 of Defense, admonishing Israel for the way it's fighting a war to save that nation after being

00:22:21.320 attacked brutally by Hamas on October 7th. And this idiot that we have as Secretary of Defense 1.00

00:22:30.700 is telling them that they're making strategic mistakes and doing so in public. I haven't heard 1.00

00:22:36.480 him say anything to the Ukrainians, have you? Don't you find it interesting the way things mix and match for 0.98

00:22:42.820 this Biden regime? It's outrageous. Absolutely. I see a lot of things with the Israel-Palestinian 1.00

00:22:51.180 war against the Hamas. And I just can't see how anybody can come to the defense of these terrorists

00:22:59.100 who are killing innocent Israelis. On October 7th, they came over and they killed a bunch of

00:23:05.460 innocent people. They stormed their houses. They killed their children. And Israel took a stand back

00:23:10.420 and they're defending their country and their nation. If Palestine just called a ceasefire,

00:23:15.860 this war would be over and Israel would stop defending itself. 0.63

00:23:20.620 It is truly amazing to watch. And without comment from the national media,

00:23:27.260 no comment from scholars in the so-called academia, the indoctrination centers that are actually

00:23:33.620 that we call often colleges and universities. It's a shame that what has happened there as well.

00:23:38.820 We wish you all the very best, Kyle. I hope you'll come back. We wish you the best and talk further.

00:23:46.000 And I think it's probably hard for some of the folks and maybe just a little bit me to think I'm

00:23:52.560 talking to a man who's 20 years old and who's gone through all that you have and have carried

00:23:58.260 yourself proudly in the way anyone would want a young man like you to carry himself and to conduct

00:24:06.680 himself. You represent, in my judgment, the best of youth in this country. Give me, if you will,

00:24:17.020 here, we always give our guests the last words, but I'd like to ask you to give us your sense

00:24:21.420 of the young people, your generation right now, young Americans, and your thought about the future.

00:24:29.420 Well, we can only pray for the future and we can only pray for our youth today, including my peer

00:24:35.040 group. I feel like my peer group is absolutely corrupted into the false politics and believing

00:24:41.760 things that they are told and voting for politicians they shouldn't be voting for that are just going to

00:24:48.560 damage our Constitution and our future. Our founding fathers were very intentional when they wrote the

00:24:53.120 Constitution. It's our duties as voters to go out there and vote for politicians who are going to

00:24:58.900 protect our constitutional rights and what our founding fathers put out for our great country.

00:25:04.540 Kyle Rittenhouse, his book is Acquitted, and we recommend it to you highly.

00:25:11.440 RittenhouseBooks.com, and God bless you. Thanks for being with us here today, Kyle.

00:25:17.320 Thank you, Lou.

00:25:18.420 Thanks, everybody, for being with us here today. Kyle Rittenhouse, quite a young man.

00:25:22.540 We urge you to buy his book, Acquitted, RittenhouseBook.com.

00:25:28.900 Our guest here tomorrow on The Great America Show will be Trump attorney, Alina Habba,

00:25:33.940 will be taking up, of course, the political persecution of President Trump now in its eighth

00:25:39.080 year, and it doesn't show any signs of letting up, folks. Please join us for that. Thanks,

00:25:44.880 everybody. God bless you, and may God bless America.

The Great America Show - December 09, 2023

RITTENHOUSE： “ACQUITTED”—STILL FIGHTING!

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