Joe Rogan has defended Kyle Rittenhouse and questioned a statement made about the 21-year-old by a guest on his podcast.
During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with guest comedian Jimmy Dore, the two men discussed how they think the media and the oligarchy lie to people to push certain agendas and to make people fight amongst each other—and they used Rittenhouse to drive their point home.
Rittenhouse gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, he shot and killed two men—Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26—as well as injured then-26-year-old Paul Prediger, then known as Gaige Grosskreutz, after rioting broke out following a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The 21-year-old said the three shootings, carried out with a semi-automatic AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense.
He was acquitted of all charges in November 2021, including charges of first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and two charges of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Now, Rogan and Dore have slammed how the media handled the story at the time, which they think polarized Rittenhouse and resulted in him leaning far right.
Newsweek emailed Rittenhouse's lawyer for comment on Tuesday.
"Look at how [the media] lied about, um—the biggest story was the Kyle Rittenhouse story, right? Now I hated that kid 'cos, uh, the corporate media told me he was a white supremacist who didn't live in that community; he traveled across state lines with guns to shoot three Black people at a Black Lives Matter rally. And I hated him. And then I watched the trial and it turns out he did live in that community, he was a lifeguard in that community," Dore said while on the show.
"Uh, he was asked to protect a car dealership by immigrants of color because the cops wouldn't and uh, he, he didn't travel across state lines with guns and he didn't shoot three Black people, he shot three white people and I was like—"
"I think he only shot two guys, wasn't it?" Rogan interrupted to ask.
The two men briefly discussed the details of the story, confirming that Rittenhouse shot three people, as he shot one person through the arm.
Dore continued: "And they're all three criminals, that's the other part they leave out."
"They're three criminals, terrible people. This is the thing about, um, riots, right? When riots are too much like a war, like uh any kin—anytime there's a gathering, protests, when people get angry and they're marching I think that ignites in us the same feelings of war and people start doing wild crazy s***," Rogan said.
"They went after that dude with a skateboard and tried to hit him with a skateboard. He ran away from them before he shot him."
As Rogan's producer pulled up Rittenhouse's Wikipedia page, Dore claimed the first man Rittenhouse shot was a pedophile. Reading from the Wikipedia page, Rogan confirmed that Rittenhouse shot and killed two men and wounded another.
"The first guy he shot had threatened to kill him all day long and we know that he attacked him because his fingerprints are on the gun barrel," Dore said, before Rogan added: "It even says it right there in Wikip—stop, go back...It says, look at this, 'Race was a major theme in the U.S. media commentary although Rittenhouse and those he shot were white.' Isn't that wild?"
Rogan said the media "just f***** that kid and he won," as he was acquitted.
"People say to me, they go, 'Jimmy why—why are you defending Kyle Rittenhouse?' I go, 'I'm not defending Kyle Rittenhouse, I don't know Kyle Rittenhouse, uh, I'm defending the truth and why aren't you p***** off that the corporate media lied about a 16-year-old kid to divide the country,' 'cos that's what that was about," Dore said.
Rogan added: "Yeah and you're just going to polarize that kid even more, I mean that kid's going to lean so far right now, they're the only people that stood by him and everybody else lied about him the media lied about him and so many people had this—so there's surface narratives right? And surface narratives are the best, the media is the best at propagating surface narratives, they're the best at headlines—even if they're misleading—but these, these, surface narratives are the ones that get into people's heads that are the least informed—and that's the general population."
Rittenhouse, who is white, traveled to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, on August 25, 2020, to answer a call from local militia to protect businesses from protesters. The demonstrations began after a white Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, during a domestic disturbance, leaving Blake paralyzed from the waist down.
The protests turned chaotic that night. According to prosecutors, Rittenhouse opened fire on Rosenbaum, Huber and Prediger. He killed Rosenbaum and Huber. Prediger was hit but survived.
During Rittenhouse's trial, his attorney, Mark Richards, wanted a judge to allow him to argue that Rosenbaum was a sex offender, saying it supported a defense theory he attacked Rittenhouse and intended to take his gun because he couldn't legally possess one. Richards maintained in court filings that Rosenbaum was convicted of having sex with a minor in Arizona in 2002 and was prohibited from possessing firearms.
Richards also claimed that Huber and Prediger were part of a "mob" that was chasing Rittenhouse. Huber hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard and tried to grab his gun, and Prediger pointed a pistol at him, he wrote.
Prediger previously told Newsweek in a telephone conversation that his life continues to be negatively impacted after being shot by Rittenhouse.
Since his acquittal, Rittenhouse has emerged as a conservative influencer and campaigner, serving as an outreach director for the organization Texas Gun Rights, and remains popular with many on the right who supported him amid his trial.
Critics, however, have argued he did not face proper consequences for the shooting. He has participated in events at colleges across the country, drawing protests from left-leaning students this year.
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