Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials were told to make sympathetic remarks in their public comments about Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who is charged with fatally wounding two demonstrators last month and shooting another during protests in Kenosha, Wis., after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
NBC News reports that there are documents that have talking points for the DHS officials directing them to say Rittenhouse "took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners."

Other talking points given to DHS officials suggested the media was mislabeling the right wing group Patriot Prayer as racist after physical conflicts between them and protest groups in Portland. It’s not clear whether the talking points came from the White House or Homeland Security, NBC News says.

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The talking points also say Rittenhouse was seen “being chased and attacked by rioters before allegedly shooting three of them, killing two...Subsequent video has emerged reportedly showing that there were 'multiple gunmen' involved, which would lend more credence to the self-defense claims."
Speaking with NBC News, a number of former Homeland Security officials took issue with federal officials being told what to say about an individual case like this before an investigation had been completed.
"It is as unprecedented as it is wrong," said Peter Boogaard, who worked as a spokesperson for Homeland Security under former President Obama.
"What strikes me about the talking points is that they didn't call for calm among the public,” said Elizabeth Neumann, a Trump administration DHS assistant secretary who left her job in April. “Even in the early hours after the incident, it was known private militias had self-deployed. …They seemed more interested in Rittenhouse's reputation than calling for calm and actual law and order.”
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Rittenhouse went to Kenosha Aug. 25 from his home in Antioch, Ill., in the wake of protests over the shooting of Blake who was seriously wounded by an officer two days prior, leaving him paralyzed. In the days of protests that ensued afterward, Rittenhouse, who was armed with an AR-15 rifle, got into conflict with two different demonstrators, Joseph Rosenbaum 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, resulting in their fatal shootings. A third person, Gaige Grosskreutz, 22, was also shot and seriously wounded. His attorneys say Rittenhouse shot in self-defense.
He was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in Rosenbaum’s case and first-degree intentional homicide in Huber’s case, among other charges. He made his first court appearance last week in Lake County, Ill., and is currently attempting to fight extradition to Wisconsin.
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