As Americans vented, grieved and, in some cases, justified the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers over the weekend, they turned, as they often do, to social media.
In the hours after the shooting, as the Trump administration rushed to push a narrative that Mr. Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who possessed a weapon and an intent to cause harm, the name Kyle Rittenhouse began to circulate online.
A young man who arrived armed with an AR-15-style rifle to defend a local business during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, Mr. Rittenhouse was once a symbol of patriotism and Second Amendment rights for many on the right. Some of his supporters, among them President Trump, helped fund his legal defense when he was brought up on — and later found not guilty of — charges of intentional homicide for shooting three protesters and killing two.
After the killing of Mr. Pretti, Mr. Rittenhouse has become a prism through which observers across the political spectrum are filtering the actions by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
For those on the left, Mr. Rittenhouse is a figure who highlights what they believe is a staggering display of hypocrisy by MAGA conservatives and administration officials who have rushed to paint Mr. Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse, as a violent activist on the streets of Minneapolis.
Some liberals have posted images of Mr. Rittenhouse gripping a rifle as a pointed reminder that conservatives, not that long ago, once forcefully defended the right to bear arms on the streets of America. Mr. Pretti was carrying a 9 mm handgun, according to federal officials, when he entered a zone of civil unrest.
“Kyle Rittenhouse showed up to a protest like this and Republicans called him a hero,” Isaiah Martin, a former Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas, wrote on X on Saturday.
For many on the right, the simple fact that Mr. Pretti had a weapon in his possession justified the actions of the federal agents, who fired at least 10 shots at Mr. Pretti in five seconds after appearing to have disarmed him. (Officials with the Minneapolis Police Department have said that Mr. Pretti had a permit to carry a weapon.)
To support their line of thinking, conservatives have also invoked Mr. Rittenhouse, citing his actions as an example of what do during an encounter with law enforcement officers.
“Be Like Kyle,” read one post, accompanied by another image of Mr. Rittenhouse from 2020, shown with his hands in the air as he surrendered to law enforcement officers. (This surrender came after Mr. Rittenhouse shot the three protesters on the street.)
On X, MAGA influencers like Matt Walsh, a right-wing pundit who championed Mr. Rittenhouse in 2020, and Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump loyalist, once again held up Mr. Rittenhouse’s actions as an example of how, in their view, people should interact with officers.
“Do not fight with police while armed,” Mr. Posobiec wrote in post on Monday.
Mr. Walsh argued that Mr. Pretti was an “armed leftist, who had set out to “deliberately interfere” with federal agents, unlike Mr. Rittenhouse, who he said was working in tandem with law enforcement officers.
Elected Democrats have also brought Mr. Rittenhouse into the conversation about Mr. Pretti.
In a widely shared clip taken from her appearance on Jake Tapper’s CNN show this past weekend, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, referred to Mr. Rittenhouse as she inveighed against Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who called Mr. Pretti a “domestic terrorist.”
Ms. Noem’s comment, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said, was “rich” in irony coming from “the same party and administration that praises Kyle Rittenhouse.”
On Facebook, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, also invoked Mr. Rittenhouse, describing him as an “armed vigilante” who was once labeled a “hero by Trump and Far-Right extremists.”
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Rittenhouse, now 23, weighed in on his newfound status as a liberal cudgel. In a post on X, he accused Mr. Jeffries of using his name “as rage bait” to “stoke the flames.”
Mr. Rittenhouse did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.
It’s clear that Democrats, and their supporters, are reveling in the right’s apparent inconsistencies. One administration official who has become a subject of left-wing scorn is Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A former podcaster and right-wing activist, Mr. Patel was a vocal supporter of Mr. Rittenhouse who celebrated his acquittal as a “victory for the Second Amendment.”
Those remarks offered yet another split-screen for social media feeds when, this week, Mr. Patel asserted that protesters were not necessarily guaranteed the right to bear arms.
“You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want — it’s that simple,” Mr. Patel said during an interview with Fox News. “You don’t have a right to break the law.”
The post Kyle Rittenhouse Is Once Again a Lightning Rod Online appeared first on New York Times.
