For tweets equating the driver of an SUV that barreled through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin to Kyle Rittenhouse, a social media manager for the Democratic Party in DuPage County, Illinois, was fired.
“It was probably simply self-defense #Wisconsin #Kyle Rittenhouse,” Mary Lemanski tweeted.
Her tweet was a reference to 18-year-old Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all counts after fatally shooting two people and injuring another during protests in Kenosha, Wis., a little over 50 miles from Waukesha, last summer.
The DuPage Democratic Party’s chairman, Ken Mejia-Beal, said in a statement on Twitter that the party “immediately cut all relations” with Lemanski after learning of her “callous and repulsive statements.”
“She does not speak for us,” Mejia-Beal added, “and we categorically reject her views regarding the sad events that transpired yesterday in Waukesha.”
According to the newspaper, Lemanski stated in a statement, “I absolutely believe in the right to freedom of expression.”
“I also think that in exchange for your freedom of expression, you must be prepared to bear responsibility and the repercussions of your actions. Unfortunately, I made some statements about the Waukesha tragedy yesterday that were not in good taste.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, Sunday’s violence in Waukesha killed five people and injured more than 40 others.
The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, the adolescent who shot three people during racial riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 — two of them fatally — should not have come as a surprise given the evidence.
Whatever one thinks of Rittenhouse’s behavior, the early eyewitness testimonies and recordings made it evident that he had a good case for self-defense.
However, many progressive discourses painted him as a racist vigilante and a serial murderer, and in the process, mainstream media and politicians spread dangerous disinformation.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) dubbed Rittenhouse a “white supremacist domestic terrorist” in a popular tweet a day after the shootings.
