So Did Anyone See Kyle in Arizona With Known neo-Fascists and White Supremacists?

We all did, Rittenhouse. We all did. Just like we always do.

Since his acquittal last month of charges that he murdered two people and injured a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin during a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse has been doing the conservative circuit meeting with the most prominent in right wing circles. And since the verdict, conservatives have been championing the idea that Rittenhouse’s acquittal somehow vindicates him of any charges leveled at him for being a white supremacist and he should be able to file suit against media outlets and President Biden for accusing him of being one.  It will be a curious thing to see how such lawsuits will fare, but the association with some of the worst elements of right wing circles that include the white supremacists he is counted among will not help such an effort.

It is something that even his attorneys have warned against him doing. “He’s very recognizable right now,” Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards told Fox News. “There’s a lot of people who I don’t think have his best interests at heart, and probably want to make him a symbol of something I don’t think he wants to be necessarily associated with.”

Regardless of who it is he wants to be associated with, Rittenhouse seems to be enjoying the attention, as evidenced by the rock star reception he received at a recent conference in Phoenix, Arizona sponsored by the conservative activist group Turning Point USA. As he stepped onto the stage to join a panel discussion, he was greeted with fireworks and the audience cheering his name. Joining him on the panel however were some particularly dubious characters: Drew Hernandez, who provided “expert testimony” at Rittenhouse’s trial, Charlie Kirk, the founder and head of Turning Point USA, who recently called for a citizen force to be deputized and put on the border so they can protect “white demographics in America,” Blaze TV host Elijah Schaffer, known for his attacks on Muslims, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, and white supremacist Jack Posobiec who was recently hired by TPUSA to host one of their programs.

The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a series of articles about Posobiec’s white supremacist history which included promoting an event put on in April 2017 by the Polish neo-Nazi group Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny (ONR) and working with National Policy Institute’s Richard Spencer, who said in a an interview conducted by One People’s Project that is referred to in the article that Posobiec called himself a white nationalist sympathizer. Posobiec and Spencer has since had a falling out.

On Jan. 5, one day before the Proud Boys and other neo-fascist groups descended upon the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC and embark on an insurrection sparked by their anger over the presidential election, Rittenhouse was 772 miles away at Pudgy’s Pub in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin partying with some of that group’s members wearing a T-Shirt that read “Free as Fuck” and posing for pictures while flashing the OK hand gesture, which in recent years been co-opted by the neo-fascists as a sign to show support for white supremacy while at the same time allowing racist trolls to feign ignorance when called on it. After he was acquitted and while rumors of suing media outlets began ratcheting up over defaming his character, Rittenhouse in an interview said that the meetings were set up by his former attorney John Pierce and was the reason behind his eventual firing along with attorney Lin Wood “for putting me in situations like that with people I don’t agree with.” Despite this, the Proud Boys still continue to support Rittenhouse, with Salt Lake City members holding a “Kyle Rittenhouse Appreciation Rally” earlier this month.

Currently, Rittenhouse seems more interested in focusing on his former attorneys moreso than any conservative anti-media grift. “We’re gonna focus on our number-one fight we’re dealing with right now with the guy whose been lying, Lin Wood and John Pierce,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, accusing Wood in attempting to steal bail money from him after his acquittal. “We’re gonna focus on them right now but maybe down the line in the future. We don’t know yet, but we’re gonna focus on those liars.”