Tucker Carlson scored the first interview with Kyle Rittenhouse, and I highly recommend it.  Before the trial, Rittenhouse was a human Rorschach test: we all saw what we wanted to see.  Tucker's interview revealed a real person: articulate, intelligent, principled, nuanced in his opinions, and even-tempered.

To the left, which is uninterested in facts, Rittenhouse became a slope-browed White supremacist who grabbed his illegal Illinois rifle and crossed state lines to Kenosha hoping to bag himself a few of those Black Lives Matter people and was forced to settle for shooting their White allies.  Conservatives got the facts right (Kyle had ties to Kenosha; had a legal gun; helped clean up graffiti, put out fires; guarded property; and found himself in mortal danger from three lifelong felons whom he then shot, killing two).  However, conservatives also turned him into a plaster saint.

The real young man is...well, real.  First, he speaks fluently, without the "like" and "you know" fillers that most young people use.  I thought his smooth, intelligent speech on the witness stand was because he was well rehearsed (which is what all lawyers should do to prepare their clients for their testimony).  It seems, though, that Rittenhouse really just speaks well.

He's angry at those who defamed him so badly.  While he doesn't curse or insult them, he made it clear that he has engaged top-flight lawyers to go after the people who labeled him a White supremacist, a racist, a vigilante, and a murderer.  (I wonder if he has Nick Sandmann's attorneys.)  He politely suggested that Biden should watch the trial, if he hasn't already, before calling Rittenhouse a White supremacist.  I don't know about other viewers, but I came away strongly inclined to believe that Biden will be served with a complaint.

By the way, regarding any defamation actions Rittenhouse does bring, some are suggesting that he's a public figure, which, under New York Times v. Sullivan, makes it virtually impossible for him to prevail.  In essence, the defense to such a suit would be that, once the media and the Democrat political class made an unwilling Rittenhouse famous, they insulated themselves from a lawsuit.  That argument perfectly fits the classic definition of the Yiddish word "chutzpah" — the man who kills both his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan.

Image: Kyle Rittenhouse.  Fox News screen grab.

Rittenhouse is also angry at his first attorneys — Lin Wood and John Pierce — accusing them of profiting off him while leaving him to rot in an adult jail when he was still a juvenile for 87 long days.  While in jail, he lost a great deal of weight and was unable to bathe for the entire time, causing his skin to decay.  Rittenhouse says this should never have happened because, by the time his bail was set, his attorneys had raised sufficient funds, but they didn't want to stop the cash from flowing.

That's not all Rittenhouse has to say about his first attorneys.  He says they foolishly had him do an interview with the Washington Post.  Rittenhouse is especially angry at Pierce, whom he accuses of providing support for the left's claim that Rittenhouse was a White supremacist because Pierce stated that Rittenhouse "was in an unorganized militia."  Rittenhouse states emphatically that this assertion was "just blatantly false.  I didn't know what a militia was."

Pierce's problem was that he forgot that, to the general public, "militia" means crazy Black or White racists parading around with guns, determined to shoot people of the "wrong" color.  However, as a matter of law, every American male from 17–45 years old is a member of "the militia of the United States" (10 USC §246).

The organized militia belongs to the National Guard and the Naval Militia.  The "unorganized militia ... consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia."  If you take up arms in defense of your country — as Kyle did when he saw that law enforcement was doing nothing to prevent his community from burning to the ground — you are a militia member.  It has nothing to do with White supremacy.  But Pierce should have known better than to make that kind of legal point in the hate-filled atmosphere the left created.

Rittenhouse repeatedly stated that self-defense is not a crime.  He also said he supports BLM because he believes that everyone should have a right to protest, although not to riot.  He also suspects that an ordinary Black defendant, without the huge support Rittenhouse received, might have a much harder time in America's criminal justice system.

Lastly, Rittenhouse wants to stop being a symbol for both the left and the right.  He's been admitted to Arizona State, where he hopes to get a degree in nursing.  He hopes to live a normal life, one without death threats and armed guards.  I certainly hope this young man, who seems intelligent, sensible, and thoughtful, gets his wish.  I also hope every one of the media outlets and politicians who defamed him pays through the nose.

(If you missed the interview, the full episode will probably appear on Tucker Carlson's Fox page in a couple of days.)

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