East Tennessee State University Veteran Memorial Vandalized with ‘Free Palestine’ Messages

ETSU Sign

A veterans memorial at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) was recently vandalized with anti-Israel messages. University officials reportedly told a local news outlet that they were working to remove the vandalism from the site Friday night.

The top of the memorial statue was vandalized with messages saying “Free Palestine,” “We have failed ourselves,” and “How many must die?”

Read the full story

Matthew Giffin Details Socialist Group’s Fight with East Tennessee State University over Upcoming Event Featuring Kyle Rittenhouse

Kyle Rittenhouse

Matthew Giffin, reporter at The Tennessee Star and student at Middle Tennessee State University, joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss a socialist group’s response to an event scheduled at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) next week featuring Kyle Rittenhouse.

Read the full story

Socialist Students Demand ETSU Restrict ‘Hate Speech’ Ahead of Kyle Rittenhouse Visit

Kyle Rittenhouse

The Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has demanded the school makes a specific policy prohibiting “hate speech.” The call comes as the right-of-center ETSU chapter of Turning Point USA prepares to host Kyle Rittenhouse for a February 8 event they’re calling “The Rittenhouse Recap.”

ETSU’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) said Rittenhouse’s visit to campus is “in clear violation of ETSU’s supposed hate speech policy” in a Friday Instagram post. YDSA also demanded that ETSU’s president and student government issue a statement condemning the event.

Read the full story

Kyle Rittenhouse Launches New Initiative to Hold Media Outlets Accountable for Telling Defamatory Lies

Kyle Rittenhouse on Monday announced that he is launching a new initiative aimed at holding major media outlets and celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg accountable for telling “malicious defamatory lies.”

Last November, the 18-year-old was acquitted of all charges related to the shooting deaths of two antifa rioters, and the injury of a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August of 2020. The jury found that he had acted in self-defense. Charges ranged from intentional homicide to recklessly endangering safety.

Read the full story

Reprimand Suggested for Nashville Metro Public Health Staff Member Who Upset Health Equity Director Stephanie Kang

Human Resources staff at Nashville’s Metro Public Health Department (MPHD) on Tuesday recommended that the department reprimand a high-ranking employee for offending Stephanie Kang, the director of MPHD’s Bureau of Racial and Health Equity. That employee, Brian Todd, serves as the director of communications for MPHD, according to an MPHD fact-finding report.

Read the full story

TikTok Removes Video by Libertarian Organization Defending Kyle Rittenhouse

Libertarian organization Young Americans for Liberty says it recently posted a video in support of Kyle Rittenhouse that was subsequently censored by TikTok

In early December, the group posted a video in response to reports that members of the Arizona State University student body were protesting Rittenhouse’s online attendance at their university. The protestors called the acquitted teenager a “murderer,” and claimed he posed a threat to the student body.

Read the full story

Rittenhouse Responds to ASU Protestors: ‘I’m Going to ASU… in Person’

After demands from Arizona State University students that Kyle Rittenhouse – the now-18-year-old who was acquitted of all charges brought against him when he defended himself against rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin – be banned from going to ASU, Rittenhouse himself issued a simple response: “I’m going.”

In an interview with conservative commentator Steven Crowder, Rittenhouse touched on the “very, very small” ASU student protest against him, calling him a “white supremacist killer,” declaring that, despite the students opposition to him, he still plans to complete his undergraduate degree there.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Public Health Board Members Silent on Woke Meltdown and HR Complaint at MPHD

No one affiliated with the Metro Nashville Health Department (MPHD) on Thursday wanted to discuss whether and why one employee is reportedly on administrative leave for verbally sparring with Director of Health Equity Stephanie Kang.

Metro Nashville Human Resources Director Shannon Hall said Wednesday that someone filed a complaint with the MPHD Human Resources Department. She did not say whether Kang was the person who filed the complaint.

Sources, however, said Kang lodged her complaint against Brian Todd, the MPHD’s communications director. The two allegedly argued over an email that Kang sent to MPHD employees calling the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict “an injustice.”

Read the full story

Princeton Students Call out Dean’s Rittenhouse Email for ‘Factual Inaccuracies, Misconstrual, and Virtue Signaling’

Kyle Rittenhouse

Some Princeton university students are pushing back after receiving a politically-charged email from a dean following the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

Princeton University students enrolled in the School of Public and International Affairs received a Nov. 20 email, obtained by Campus Reform, titled “Our Moral Duty” from the dean of the school, Dean Amaney Jamal.

“Last August, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two protestors and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin. During his trial, he emotionally broke down on the stand, saying he was acting in self-defense. Today, he was acquitted of all six charges against him, including three of which were homicide related,” the email read.

Read the full story

Arizona State University Defends ‘Death 2 America’ Sign at Anti-Rittenhouse Rally

Arizona State University (ASU) Thursday defended a photo circulating the internet that depicts a woman on its campus holding a sign that says “Death 2 America” during Wednesday’s anti-Kyle Rittenhouse protests. 

”University campuses are synonymous with free speech, an environment for the vigorous discussion and debate of ideas,” an ASU spokesperson told The Arizona Sun Times. “Differences of opinion, from all sides, should be explored in a peaceful exchange.”

Read the full story

Kenosha Police Bodycam Video Shows NBC Producer and Freelancer Weaseling Out of Jury Tampering Rap

A freelance photographer and his NBC contact were caught on camera trying to squirm their way out of trouble in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month, when the freelancer was stopped for running a red light while trying to keep up with the Rittenhouse jury van.

Kenosha police on Tuesday released the body camera video of the November 17 stop. James Morrison, the driver of the vehicle, identified himself as an NBC producer.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Health Department Apologizes for Calling Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict an Injustice

Metro Nashville Health Department (MPHD) staff on Wednesday apologized for Director of Health Equity Stephanie Kang calling the not guilty verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial an injustice. Last week, Kang in an email to MPHD employees, described Rittenhouse as “a young white man who shot and killed two people and wounded one other.”

Read the full story

Kenosha’s Democratic Lawmakers Want Wisconsin’s Weapons Law Changed Following Rittenhouse Case

Todd Ohnstad, Bob Wirch and Tip McGuire

In response to the Kyle Rittenhouse case, Kenosha’s three Democratic lawmakers have introduced a plan to make it illegal for anyone under 18 to carry a rifle or a shotgun unless they are hunting.

“While Wisconsin law generally prohibits a minor from possessing a dangerous weapon, there is an exception which allows a minor to possess a long gun or rifle if the barrel is longer than 16 inches,” Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Somers, along with Reps. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, and Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, said in a statement. “The exception was made to respect Wisconsin’s sporting heritage. This bill simply clarifies that a minor may only possess a long gun or rifle if they are legally hunting and in compliance with hunting laws.”

Prosecutors in the Rittenhouse case tried to charge him with illegal possession of a firearm, but that charge was dropped because Wisconsin law allows some teenagers to carry certain rifles and shotguns.

Read the full story

Arizona State University Says Kyle Rittenhouse May Apply for Admission There, Despite Protests by Some Students

Arizona State University (ASU) officials say Kyle Rittenhouse may enroll for classes, notwithstanding radical student groups like the ASU Students For Socialism’s vows to demonstrate on campus Wednesday to demand the school prevent him from attending. Rittenhouse, who was recently acquitted of homicide for defending himself, has taken online courses at ASU previously and said after the acquittal that he intends to resume them.

Several prominent ASU graduates denounced the protest, and one, State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa), pushed ASU for a response.

Read the full story

Arizona State University Denies Rittenhouse Enrolled at School as Protests Gear Up

Students gathered in a common area at a table with masks on

A group at Arizona State University (ASU) will protest the online enrollment of Kyle Rittenhouse, according to social media posts and statements. 

“Join us and rally against racist murderer Kyle Rittenhouse being permitted on our campus – Wednesday at 3:30 outside the Nelson Fine Arts Center on campus,” ASU’s chapter of Students for Socialism said on Twitter. 

Read the full story

Commentary: Rittenhouse Case Highlights a House Divided on Self-Defense

The conclusion of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, in which the 18-year-old was found not guilty of murder or assault in the shootings of three rioters in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, reflects a widening gap in how Americans conceive of justice and self-defense. 

For those cheering Rittenhouse’s exoneration, the case was a prototypical demonstration of rights and obligations of republican citizenship. A lawfully armed Rittenhouse joined with neighbors, in the absence of effective governance, to protect lives and property by putting out fires, cleaning up damage, and offering medical assistance to the injured. When he was directly assaulted for engaging in this activity, Rittenhouse defended himself, harming no one who had not directly placed him under reasonable fear for his life.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Steve Glover ‘Sickened’ by Metro Health Department Email About Kyle Rittenhouse

Staff at the Metro Nashville Health Department on Wednesday confirmed that their Director of Health Equity Stephanie Kang told department employees via email that the not guilty verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial was an injustice. Metro Nashville Health Department spokesman Brian Todd told The Tennessee Star that the email, which WTN host Brian Wilson read on his radio show Tuesday, was authentic.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Health Department Sends Letter Addressing the ‘Injustice’ of Kyle Rittenhouse’s ‘Not Guilty’ Verdict: Report

On his radio program Tuesday morning, Brian Wilson, the host of 99.7 FM WTN’s Nashville’s Morning News, discussed a recent letter distributed by the Metro Health Department addressing the ‘BIPOC’ community encouraging those that have been affected by the Kyle Rittenhouse ruling to seek remedy due to the injustice suffered by the jury and court ruling of the case.

Read the full story

Twitter’s Response to the Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict

Kyle Rittenhouse

Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges on Friday, ending the highly publicized trial in Madison, Wis. On Aug. 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, 18, fatally shot two men and wounded a third during protests in Kenosha, Wis. Jury selection began on Nov. 1, 2021, and the final verdict has come after four days of jury deliberation. Rittenhouse was acquitted on all seven counts, which included the serious first-degree reckless homicide, primarily claiming self-defense. This high-profile case has become the center of the political and cultural discourse surrounding self-defense, guns, racism, media, and the judicial system. Here are ten responses to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

Read the full story

Two Black Men Made Self-Defense Claims Against Police This Year and Won

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber (both white men) because of white supremacy, according to left-wing politicians and journalists.

Rittenhouse shot three people (all white), killing two, in a claimed self-defense incident after he was charged by left-wing rioters during unrest in Kenosha last year. A jury cleared him of all charges on Friday.

According to people like Rep. Cori Bush, Rittenhouse’s acquittal was “white supremacy in action.”

“This system isn’t built to hold white supremacists accountable. It’s why Black and brown folks are brutalized and put in cages while white supremacist murderers walk free,” she said on Twitter.

Read the full story

Seventh Congressional Race Update: McGuire Decides to Run, Reeves Calls for Reinstatement of Officer Who Donated to Rittenhouse’s Legal Fund

Delegate John McGuire (R-Henrico) has been gradually ramping up his campaign for the GOP nomination for Virginia’s seventh congressional district: touting his fundraising totals, asking supporters for money, and beginning to file necessary federal paperwork for the campaign. That’s not a surprise, and McGuire joins the list of candidates entering the race despite a lack of clarity about what the district will look like after redistricting. McGuire, Senator Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania), and Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) are the heavyweights at this point in the race.

“Over the past year, I’ve had countless Virginians tell me I need to run for Congress to help save our country from the radical left leaders in Washington. Well, after our major win on November 2nd, and a lot of prayer with my wife, we’ve decided it’s our time to get into this race to take back the House in 2022,” McGuire said in a statement to The Virginia Star.

Read the full story

Despite Evidence to the Contrary, GoFundMe Says it Doesn’t Host Legal Fundraisers for Alleged Violent Criminals

Person receiving large cardboard check from GoFundMe.

After Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges Friday stemming from his self-defense killing of two rioters and the injury of a third in August of 2020, a crowdfunding platform explained its decision to ban him raising money for his legal defense. 

“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime,” GoFundMe, a popular online crowdfunding tool, said. 

Read the full story

Some Leftists Defend Waukesha Mass Killing, Call it ‘Karma’ for Rittenhouse

Five are dead and dozens more injured after a Black Lives Matter activist and two others allegedly plowed through a crowd of Christmas paraders in Waukesha Sunday evening. 

Some say it’s “karma” for the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who walked after a jury decided last week that he acted in self-defense in the killing of two rioters, and the injuring of a third.

Read the full story

Facebook Silent on Whether It Will Allow Pro-Kyle Rittenhouse Posts

Facebook is remaining silent as to whether it will change its content policy regarding Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty of several charges Friday.

During riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020 after the shooting of Jacob Blake, Rittenhouse, then seventeen years old, shot three men in self-defense during an altercation, killing two of them. Rittenhouse was later arrested and charged with intentional homicide before being acquitted on all charges Friday afternoon.

Read the full story

Commentary: A Former Prosecutor’s Take on the Rittenhouse Trial and Verdict

Could Kyle Rittenhouse face another trial? Does Rittenhouse have grounds to sue media outlets for defamation? What about the behavior of the prosecutors during the trial? The Heritage Foundation’s Zack Smith, a former prosecutor, joins Tim Doescher of “Heritage Explains” to answer these questions and more. Watch the full interview here or read, below, an edited and abridged transcript.

Read the full story

Joe Biden Backpedals on Former Rittenhouse Take, Says He Supports the Verdict

After Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, was fully acquitted on Friday of all charges related to the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin that left two Antifa agitators dead, and a third wounded, Joe Biden took the opportunity to praise the jury system.

The prosecution set out to paint the teen as a reckless vigilante who shouldn’t have been in Kenosha, and who had acted with “no regard for life.” The defense argued that the teen had acted purely in self defense, as virtually all of the evidence had showed.

Read the full story

SPLC Calls Rittenhouse ‘Armed Vigilante,’ Blames Police for Kenosha Incident After Acquittal

The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Kyle Rittenhouse as an “armed vigilante,” and blamed law enforcement for the cause of violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020, following the acquittal of the 18 year old Friday, according to a press release obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“One cannot cast blame upon the irresponsible actions of individuals without acknowledging the catastrophic failure of local law enforcement to uphold the public good,” Eric Ward, a senior fellow at the SPLC and executive director at the Western States Center, said in a statement. “Law enforcement unwillingness to uphold its mission of non-politicized policing led to a volatile environment where an armed vigilante was allowed to parade a weapon, engage racial justice protestors and depart the scene freely after having discharged a weapon that took the lives of two individuals and injured a third.”

Read the full story

Judge Dismisses Weapons Charge Against Rittenhouse, Closing Arguments Delivered

Kyle Rittenhouse

In the high-profile trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, accused of intentional homicide after killing two and wounding one during an August 25, 2020 riot in Kenosha, Judge Bruce Schroeder began Monday by dismissing a weapons charge against the 18-year-old defendant. 

Count six of the complaint, possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, was dropped before closing arguments began. That was a lesser charge in the complaint – a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in prison. 

Read the full story

Commentary: Intimidation in Kenosha and Corporate Board Rooms

The Rittenhouse case makes me sick. There is supposed to be a presumption of innocence in this country and the case is classic self-defense. Even the prosecution’s witnesses gave testimony suitable to acquit Rittenhouse, but the politics forced this trial.

Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial because the left, and the law in many cities, have opened the door to Marxist rioters destroying their cities, Kenosha is no different.

Read the full story

Alan Dershowitz: Kyle Rittenhouse ‘Should Be Acquitted,’ Sue Media for Calling Him ‘Vigilante’

Alan Dershowitz, the famed Harvard law professor emeritus, said Kyle Rittenhouse “should be acquitted” of injuring a man and killing two others in Kenosha, Wis., and sue media outlets that are claiming he’s guilty of vigilante justice.

“If I were a juror, I would vote that there was reasonable doubt [and] that he did act in self-defense,” Dershowitz told Newsmax on Saturday.

Read the full story