RedState has been covering the Kyle Rittenhouse case thoroughly the last few days, but today may prove to be the most shocking moment yet. In a move that no one predicted, and one rife with risk, Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand today to testify in his defense.

Speculation was that the defense team was unlikely to have called the shot on this move, leading some to believe that Rittenhouse insisted he testifies. But now that clips are starting to come out, I do think this was part of a concerted strategy to put this trial to bed without any doubt.

Rittenhouse is the defense’s witness, so his attorneys questioned him first. The young man broke down into tears describing the events of that night.

Kyle Rittenhouse tears up while recapping what happened after being cornered pic.twitter.com/c8dJQ9eQ8h

— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 10, 2021

Here was Johnathan Turley’s analysis, which seems to correspond with the idea that this was a planned move, not a last-second mutiny against his lawyers by Rittenhouse himself.

…Prosecution witnesses imploded earlier. It would have been tempting to just minimize risk and not put Rittenhouse on the stand. However, such a move could left lingering doubts in jurors if you want to nail an acquittal…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 10, 2021

After Rittenhouse broke down, the judge called a recess and we are still waiting to see what the prosecution does. Given how terrible their case has been so far, you can bet they are going to press this last opportunity as hard as they can. But that could backfire if they only end up making Rittenhouse look more sympathetic to the jury.

Regardless, I think it’s clear that 1) the evidence supports the claim of self-defense and 2) that Rittenhouse is not some vicious white supremacist who showed up to murder people. He is clearly affected by what happened and has no intention of killing anyone when he drove the 20 minutes from his hometown to Kenosha that evening.

Whether he “should not have been there,” a common refrain from his detractors, is irrelevant. We should not be sending people to jail to learn non-criminal lessons nor does that standard apply to anything else. This is a developing story and as soon as the questioning from the prosecution concludes, RedState will be there with an update on what transpired.