A tweet posted Wednesday on the campaign Twitter account of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) calls for Kyle Rittenhouse to be locked up.
“Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key,” the tweet declares, apparently passing judgment before the conclusion of the widely-watched trial.
Jeffries is the chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
Rittenhouse, who is now 18-years-old, fatally shot two people and wounded another last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin — he was 17 when the shootings took place.
Rittenhouse has maintained that his actions were taken in self defense.
People on social media have taken notice of the tweet posted on the congressman’s campaign account.
“This was not a smart thing for Rep. Jeffries’ social media manager to tweet about an ongoing courtroom trial,” pollster Frank Luntz tweeted.
“This is a sitting congressman commenting on a jury trial as it happens. Very disturbing,” Fox News senior editor Will Ricciardella tweeted.
“Very few people in politics and culture actually have a problem with prison. They just want different people behind bars,” Delano Squires tweeted.
Squires included a screenshot of a June 2020 tweet from Jeffries’ campaign account that said: “End. Mass. Incarceration. Defund The Prison Industrial Complex.”
Reason assistant editor Billy Binion tweeted, “It is beyond depressing that many people who’ve seemingly dedicated their lives to reforming the criminal justice system are this quick to discard all of their principles because they met a defendant they don’t like. Everyone deserves due process. This is pitiful.”
“What happened to the whole thing about criminal justice reform, prison abolition, the evils of the carceral state, the inherent pro-prosecution bias, rehabilitative justice?” Glenn Greenwald tweeted. “It all instantly disappears based if the accused has the wrong ideology. Then it’s: law and order!”