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Kyle Rittenhouse, the conservative campaigner who shot two men during a Black Lives Matter protest nearly four years ago, flip-flopped this week on whether he would be voting for Former President Donald Trump in the November election.
Rittenhouse, 21, took to X on Thursday, to declare his intentions to instead write in former Libertarian presidential nominee Ron Paul, who is not running for president.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump had bad advisors making him bad on the Second Amendment and that is my issue,” said Rittenhouse. “If you cannot be completely uncompromisable on the Second Amendment I will not vote for you.”
Rittenhouse retweeted a post from Dudley Brown, the leader of the National Association for Gun Rights, outlining the group’s issues.
These include Trump’s 2018 ban on bump stocks, a device that can be attached to semi-automatic rifles to fire off hundreds of bullets a minute, and Trump’s prior stances on raising the age for gun purchases and his willingness to expand background checks.
Rittenhouse met Trump in 2021, nearly a week after he was cleared of all charges from the Kenosha, Wisconsin shooting a year prior. The campaigner argued that he had acted in self defense. The former president called Rittenhouse a “fan.”
The 21-year-old’s announcement was not met with overwhelming support from his X followers, many of whom pointed out that writing in a candidate could lend support to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running in Biden’s place after he dropped out of the race this summer.
“Just unfollowed you,” one person wrote. “MAGA raised unbelievable sums of money for you. Trump welcomed you into his home. This is how you thank him and the MAGA movement after all those years of support?”
Another person commented: “You are a f****** idiot. I am unfollowing you.”
Following the post, Trump’s team scrambled to get Rittenhouse back on their side, a move that proved successful by Friday afternoon, when Rittenhouse announced he had spent a whopping 12 hours having “productive conversations” with the former president’s campaign officials.
Referencing Trump, Rittenhouse said, “I am confident he will be the strong ally gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights. My comments made last night were ill-informed and unproductive. I’m 100% behind Donald Trump and encourage every gun owner to join me in helping send him back to the White House.”
Rittenhouse is now the Outreach Director of Texas Gun Rights, a group that claims it’s working to “restore” the Second Amendment.
Trump, who was shot in the ear on July 13 in an assassination attempt, has made the Second Amendment a hallmark of his presidential campaign.
While speaking to the National Rifle Association in May, Trump proclaimed his intentions to roll back gun relations enacted by President Joe Biden but was not clear on what provisions he’d like to undo. In the same speech, Trump further accused the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives of revoking gun licenses without merit.
“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment. The attacks are coming fast and furious,” said Trump.
