There's a Bigger Problem With Joe Biden’s Rittenhouse Statements That Needs to Be Addressed

In the aftermath of the jury’s “not guilty” verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, liberals and some in the media predictably launched into epic meltdowns, continuing to try and make a high-profile trial that had nothing to do with race all about race.

As we previously reported, when President Joe Biden was asked about the verdict on Friday shortly after receiving his colonoscopy, he simply stated that we should respect the jury’s verdict.

“The jury system works and we have to abide by it,” he told reporters in his initial response after noting he had not watched trial and while also refraining from apologizing for past smears where he’d suggested, without evidence, that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist and murderer.

But in a formal statement issued by the White House later, Biden tried to appear more “woke,” stating in part that, “While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.”

It was a ridiculous statement for reasons my colleague Bonchie outlined in his write-up, but when I read that he was “angry and concerned” about the verdict, I shook my head. Remember, in his first comments to reporters, Biden specifically noted he had not watched the trial:

Biden on Rittenhouse verdict: “The jury system works, and we have to abide by it” pic.twitter.com/EuS9L5aUUw

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 19, 2021

So in a matter of just a few hours, we go from “I didn’t watch the trial” to him being “angry and concerned” like “many Americans” supposedly felt.

How can you be “angry and concerned” about a verdict from a trial you admit you haven’t even watched? I mean shouldn’t you watch it or the highlight reels at the very least before drawing conclusions one way or the other?

It reminded me of how he and other members of his administration inappropriately mouthed off about the fake “border patrol agents whip Haitian migrants” controversy back in September even as facts were coming in including from the photographer who took the pictures, facts which clearly indicated that no such “whipping” ever took place.

Nevertheless, Biden accused the agents – again, without evidence – of “strapping” the migrants, and vowed they “will pay” for what they allegedly had done.

This tendency of Biden and his team to weigh in on hot-button issues without much if any knowledge of the facts behind thems is indicative of a larger problem we have in our society. Though it’s not just confined to Democrats, by and large, they engage in the “leap before you look” mentality far more often than I’ve seen Republicans do – perhaps because Republicans are more often than not the primary victims of people judging them and what they say without knowing the facts and context.

It would do America as a country a world of good if people – politicians especially – stopped commenting on things they’re asked about if they don’t know anything about the subject matter. Like when former President Obama declared that the Cambridge police “acted stupidly,” he popped off without knowing the facts about the story, and then later tried to make up for it by holding a ridiculous “beer summit” on the White House lawn. He could have avoided all of it by simply stating that the case needed to be investigated locally and that he would not comment on it until the investigation had concluded.

Imagine a society where people including our elected officials took such an approach. Learn the facts and then comment – if you even should comment at all. Fires have been started – both literally and figuratively – in part thanks to outrage mobs and politicians throwing fuel on the fire by giving their incendiary .02 on topics on which they are clearly uninformed. It’s like the liberals who keep making the Rittenhouse case about race when it’s not. It’s like they’re begging for riots, looting, and fires to take place in Kenosha.

This is not a healthy way for our society to be now, nor in the decades to come. People who really do give a damn about this country’s future fully understand that the best way to go forward is constructively, by laying all the facts out on the table and then going from there in the arena of ideas, not by striking matches and throwing them at powder kegs.

Passionate disagreements will be had, but that’s the way this country is supposed to work. But those disagreements should not be so toxic that they lead to violence and chaos in the streets, nor should they lead to the targeting of concerned citizens by a vengeful Dept. of Justice colluding with political donors.

In short, if politicians and those who feel the urge to comment on an issue don’t have a good grasp of the facts surrounding the topic they want to address, follow this simple and timely advice: Just shut up.