Kentucky congressman defends teen

LOUISVILLE, KY. >> A Kentucky congressman said a teenager charged with fatally shooting two people with a semi-automatic rifle during the unrest in Wisconsin showed “incredible restraint” and acted in selfdefense.

Rep. Thomas Massie also told a radio interviewer on Thursday that if he were on the jury, he would vote to acquit the teenager if the evidence was based on video he had seen of the melee.

Massie, a libertarianleaning Republican, defended the Illinois teen, Kyle Rittenhouse. The congressman said he knew more about the 17-yearold’s case than he did about the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an incident that had sparked the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Massie’s Democratic challenger in the November election, Alexandra Owensby, accused the congressman of continuing to “throw fuel on the fire.”

“When people are being killed in the streets, a representative should never praise the killer,” Owensby said in a statement. “I shouldn’t even have to say this.”

Blake, who is Black, was left paralyzed after an officer shot him in the back seven times on Aug. 23. The shooting of Blake, captured on cellphone video, stirred protests that resulted in buildings being burned and vandalized.

Rittenhouse has said he went to the Kenosha protests to protect businesses and people.

“What does it say about our country where this lawlessness is going on to the extent that a 17-year-old feels compelled to stop it?” Massie said during the interview this week.