Kyle Rittenhouse Message Goes Viral After College Hostility

Kyle Rittenhouse's social media post urging "young free thinkers" to join "local conservative groups" has gone viral, days after his appearance at the University of Memphis led to backlash from some students.

Rittenhouse, 21, was invited by the college's Turning Point USA chapter to speak at the campus on March 20. However, the event was met with backlash from a number of students who objected to his presence.

Rittenhouse gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, he shot and killed two men—Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26—and injured 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Rittenhouse can be seen abruptly exiting the stage at the University of Memphis after a group of students confronted him about controversial statements that Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA's founder and president, had made about Black people in the past.

"What racist things has Charlie Kirk said?" Rittenhouse asked, before the student questioning him gave a list of examples. Rittenhouse subsequently said he didn't "know anything about that," before refusing to comment and leaving the stage.

Rittenhouse later told Newsweek in a statement: "The event was scheduled for 30 minutes. I spoke for 30 minutes and then my security team told the coordinator that we were leaving after the question, and we left. I stayed for my scheduled time."

On March 24, Rittenhouse shared on X a link to the Fox News host Laura Ingraham's website, which also reported on his University of Memphis appearance.

"I want to encourage young free thinkers to join local conservative groups like TPUSA on campus," Rittenhouse wrote in the accompanying caption. "Don't believe the lies from the left that make you feel alone—you're not! I've traveled to colleges all over, and trust me, conservatives are everywhere."

As of press time, the post has received more than 240,000 views.

After footage of Rittenhouse leaving the stage went viral, Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that Rittenhouse "did not storm off stage. He told the audience that it would be his final question, and then when he was finished answering it, he left, as he told the audience he would.

"Furthermore, there's important context as to why the event was disrupted in the first place. The school forced a day-of, last-minute ticketing system change, forcing the local chapter to use the school's proprietary ticketing system after agreeing to allow us to use our own. The protester groups were tipped off of when the new tickets would be made available, so they reserved nearly all of them so they could interrupt, sabotage, and eventually stage a walk out.

"We had thousands of people who wanted to come to this event who were unable to because of the ticketing change done in the name of 'fairness and equity,' but the school's complicity in empowering bad faith agitators is why Mr. Rittenhouse spoke to a room of protesters."

"Kyle didn't storm off, he waited to see if the protesters would allow him to speak," Kolvet added. "When it was apparent there was no hope of a constructive dialogue, he told the audience it would be his last question, then ended the Q+A and proceeded to addressed TPUSA students in a private room for 2 [hours] answering their questions and taking pictures."

Newsweek has contacted the University of Memphis via email for comment.

In January, Kirk, a conservative activist, sparked uproar when he said, "If I see a Black pilot, I'm gonna be like, 'Boy, I hope he is qualified.'"

He later said the statement was "not who I am, that's not what I believe," but added that he was being made to react that way because he felt policies adopted by major companies regarding ethnic minorities meant less-qualified people were being given jobs with significant responsibility, including airline pilots.

On his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk also criticized the "myth" surrounding revered civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King.

Rittenhouse has denied any wrongdoing and said the three shootings, carried out with a semi-automatic AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. The Black Lives Matter protest where the shootings took place was held after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer.

In November 2021, Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and two charges of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. Rittenhouse later said he supported the BLM movement, adding that he was at the demonstration to "protect businesses and provide medical assistance."

Rittenhouse's criminal defense attorney said in November that he had lost all his money since he was acquitted in the Wisconsin shootings.

Talking to Court TV, attorney Mark Richards, who represented Rittenhouse at the trial, said: "He is working. He is trying to support himself. Everybody thinks that Kyle got so much money from this. Whatever money he did get is gone.

"He's living—I don't want to say paycheck to paycheck, but he's living to support himself. Obviously, as his lawyer and somebody who I want to do well, I hope he does reengage in his studies. But right now he is working full time, he is living a law-abiding life and he is doing something that he enjoys."

Rittenhouse has been open about needing money, and he previously used an appearance on Fox News to request donations to his legal fund. He faces lawsuits from Grosskreutz, the man he shot and injured, and from the father of one of the two men he killed.