Notorious young gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of fatally shooting two unarmed protesters in Wisconsin, released a video Friday explaining that he was not going to vote for Donald Trump this presidential election.
Hours later he did a 180 and renewed his support for Trump.
Trump is "bad" about protecting gun rights, claimed Rittenhouse, who did not detail how the former president, who has a reputatin for strongly supporting of a wide range of gun rights, is letting him down.
Rittenhouse had said he planned to write in the name of former Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, he said in on TikTok in a video posted by gun advocate Dudley Brown.
"If you cannot be completely uncompromisable on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you," Rittenhouse said in the video.
Rittenhouse of Illinois was 17 and armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle in 2020 when he traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a protest against the police shooting of Black Wisconsin resident Jacob Blake.
The teen fatally shot 36-year-old protester Joseph Rosenbaum five times and then Anthony Huber, 26, who used his skateboard to try to knock Rittenhouse's rifle from his hands as he brandished it the middle of a crowd.
He also wounded volunteer medic Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, who was in the crowd.
Rittenhouse claimed he was at the protest to prevent vandalism of businesses by protesters, though though no one requested help from Rittenhouse nor other armed men at the scene.
Police, however, were videotaped thanking the self-appointed vigilantes for being there, and handed out bottles of water to them.
Rittenhouse claimed self defense at his trial. His acquittal was called "chilling" by the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper that warned it was "sure to embolden" militant gunmen who want to "take the law into their own hands."
Rittenhouse "wasn't making anyone safer by parading through crowds of angry people with a semiautomatic rifle strapped to his chest and [then] pointing it at people," the newspaper noted.
Rittenhouse met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago soon after he was cleared of charges. Trump called Rittenhouse a "really a nice young man" who was a "fan" of the former president.
MAGA did not take Rittenhouse's video well.
BYE forever✌️ I can stomach a lot of things - but backstabbing millions who supported you at your lowest point. Then turning on Trump right after he got shot. Can't stomach it - won't put up with it - forgotten forever. pic.twitter.com/7TJGfbwk4R
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) August 2, 2024
Friday afternoon, Rittenhouse tweeted an update.
"Over the past 12 hours, I've had a series of productive conversations with members of the Trump's team and I am confident he will be the strong ally gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights," Rittenhouse stated.
"My comments made last night were ill-informed and unproductive. I'm 100% behind Donald Trump and encourage every gun owner to join me in helping send him back to the White House."
