Laura Ingraham is outraged that students shut down a self-serving speech by vigilante killer Kyle Rittenhouse at the University of Memphis.
I think we all know that if a Black man had shot and killed two Jan. 6 protesters, then was booked for a speech at a college campus, Laura Ingraham would be screeching about the horrors of academia, even if the Black man had been acquitted of criminal wrongdoing.
But in this case, the vigilante killer is Kyle Rittenhouse. He’s the young man who showed up with an assault rifle at a Wisconsin Black Lives Matter protest, then shot and killed two protesters. He became an instant Fox News/MAGA hero, simply for killing the protesters. Sure, he was acquitted of murder. But only in Fox News/MAGA world would that behavior qualify such a person to be a hero.
Now, Rittenhouse is a conservative victim, too. It was totally predictable that students at the University of Memphis, especially Black students, would be outraged that this 21 year-old, who has accomplished nothing in life other than killing two protesters, getting acquitted and crusading as a gun rights vigilante activist, was there to impart so-called wisdom.
The Guardian reported, “Rittenhouse’s speech topics included the importance of the second amendment and ‘the lies of Black Lives Matter’, according to event details.”
Ingraham, wearing her ostentatious Christian cross, showed no interest in loving the people she made out to be enemies. Instead, she railed against those who protested Rittenhouse’s appearance. “Remember when liberals used to believe in free speech and open debate? Well, this is where they are now, trying to block, silence and terrorize those they disagree with,” she sneered.
“Pro-life” Ingraham didn’t show a moment of concern for the two deaths caused by Rittenhouse, either. In fact, she never even mentioned them. “He spoke at the University of Memphis last night about the Milwaukee BLM riot. And, of course, his acquittal on all homicide charges for the actions he took in self-defense that night,” was how she described his notoriety.
She went on to claim that “a hostile crowd of Black Lives Matter supporters attended his event, compelling security to rush Kyle out of the venue before things escalated. Those who actually wanted to hear what Kyle had to say were actually chased down by the free speechers. They tried to block them from even leaving their parking garage.”
After that intro and a plug for his book, the martyr known as Kyle Rittenhouse joined the show.
Rittenhouse insisted he had not been booed off the stage, that his speaking time had been set for 30 minutes and “I was on stage for 30 minutes.” However, he said he could only speak for two or three minutes “and then nobody would hear me out.” So he went to a “Q&A of going back and forth and talking to these people and they didn't seem to want to listen,” he said. “There were some people that I had pretty good dialogue with, but nobody really cared. Just everybody just wanted to make a scene and be disrespectful and cause chaos. And I was really disappointed with the university.”
That wasn’t enough demonization of Rittenhouse's opponents for Christian Ingram.
INGRAHAM: Everyone knows if you were, let's say, a trans athlete and you were speaking about trans empowerment, right? And a bunch of conservative kids … showed up and harassed that person or harassed the speaker, refused to listen to the speaker, then chased some of the pro trans people out - I mean, this would be a national news story that nobody would stop talking about. But in this case, this is just accepted behavior and I don't understand how the university puts up with this.
Of course, Rittenhouse is not just somebody with a conservative viewpoint. He’s a killer whose planned remarks seemed designed to justify killing Black Lives Matter demonstrators. That’s a whole different box of bullets than a trans athlete talking about athletics or trans pride.
Ingraham may be many awful things but she’s not stupid. So, she knew darned well that she was championing a vigilante killer and demanding he be respected by the same group of people whose members he killed. She also knew darned well that the group that sponsored Rittenhouse, Turning Point USA, almost certainly brought him on campus simply to own the libs and stick it to Black Lives Matter sympathizers.
Does she really think this is what Jesus would have wanted?
You can watch Ingraham promote a vigilante killer below, from the March 21, 2024 The Ingraham Angle.