Charlie Sykes: The Right-Wing Media Are Embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as ‘a Folk Hero’

EXCERPT:

SYKES: “The split screen of the McCloskeys, this white gun-toting family, aiming weapons at black protesters, and the way they were lionized at the Republican convention, and then the other split screen is this young 17-year-old with the rifle in Kenosha, Kyle Rittenhouse. And the way in which — and I will say that we’ve entered a very, very dark period right now, which is why I think the situation is so fluid, because the folks in the right-wing media are turning Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two people the other night, are turning him into a folk hero. If you go into conservative media, they’re making him sort of a Bernie Goetz times ten figure. You have people tweeting, 'I want him to be my bodyguard, I want him to be the president.' So, there is an encouragement of this kind of violence and vigilantism. And again, it’s overt. You saw it at the Republican convention, you see it in the media.”