Fox News Host Urges ‘No Victory Lap’ for Kyle Rittenhouse: ‘He’s Not a Hero’
Turner appeared to implore both viewers and colleagues to not lionize the teenager who has quickly become a right-wing celebrity.
Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner on Monday told the conservative network’s viewers that even though Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder, he’s “not a hero.” Additionally, she noted, there’s “no victory lap for Kyle or anybody else to take.”
Following Rittenhouse’s acquittal last week, right-wing media figures and MAGA politicians fell over each other to praise the 18-year-old who shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisc., last summer. At least three pro-Trump congressmen offered Rittenhouse a congressional internship while conservative pundits have hoisted up the teenager as a right-wing icon.
Fox News star Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, revealed after the verdict that he had a crew embedded with Rittenhouse throughout the trial, filming an upcoming documentary for Fox’s streaming service. The Fox host also scored the first post-trial interview with Rittenhouse, which will air Monday night. Carlson’s executive producer has claimed that no payment was made to Rittenhouse or his family for access, despite the young man’s attorney suggesting otherwise.
Despite all of this, Turner on Monday appeared to warn her Fox colleagues and audience that Rittenhouse should not be lionized.
While discussing whether Rittenhouse has a defamation case against Democrats and media outlets, Turner at first took issue with some of the mainstream news coverage of the murder case. “Two of the most persistent and incorrect facts that have created this media landscape are the fact that he traveled across state lines with the firearm, which he did not,” she said. “Also, that he shot Black men, which he did not.” (Though some international press agencies did incorrectly report that Rittenhouse’s victims were Black, it doesn’t appear that any major U.S. media outlets made that mistake.)
“That said, this case is particularly tragic because Kyle may have been acquitted, but he’s not a hero here,” Turner continued. “There are no heroes and there are no winners. There is no victory lap for Kyle or anybody else to take.”
She went on to say that America is currently on a “razor-thin knife’s edge,” lamenting that “everything is flammable and could go pear-shaped in an instant.”
Turner then stated that she would leave it up to the rest of the panel “to decide if they feel” that President Joe Biden’s comments following the verdict “hurt or help” the situation. Saying the “jury system works,” Biden added that he was angry over Rittenhouse’s acquittal.
