After Filming Tucker Carlson Interview, Kyle Rittenhouse Spotted At FL Restaurant: Report

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, FL — Kyle Rittenhouse was spotted at a Southwest Florida restaurant over the weekend just days after being acquitted in the fatal shootings of two Wisconsin protesters, according to social media posts by GOP leaders in Florida.

Christian Ziegler, vice chair of the Republican party in the state and a Sarasota County commissioner, shared an image of Rittenhouse at Smokin Jerry’s Tiki Hut in Placida, which is in Charlotte County, on Facebook Sunday.

“Welcome to the free state of Florida sir,” Ziegler wrote.

Evan Power, the state GOP’s chair of chairs, tweeted the same image Sunday, writing, “Look who is free in the free state of Florida!”

On Friday, a Wisconsin jury found Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty after he shot three protesters in Kenosha — two of them fatally — last year during a period of civil unrest in the city.

Protesters took to the streets in Kenosha following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by white police officers in August 2020.

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• FL Rep. Matt Gaetz Wants To Hire Kyle Rittenhouse As An Intern
• Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict Prompts Los Angeles Protests
• Anthony Huber's Parents Speak Out After Rittenhouse Verdict
• Protest Of Rittenhouse’s ‘Not Guilty’ Verdict Planned In Sarasota

Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, on the third night of protests.

He was also acquitted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting that injured a third protester, Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28. A misdemeanor weapons charge was dismissed by the jury earlier in the week.

Florida GOP Chairman Joe Gruters told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that Rittenhouse was in the area over the weekend to film a Fox News segment with Tucker Carlson, who has a home in Charlotte County’s Boca Grande community.

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His interview, the first since his acquittal, airs on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday at 8 p.m.

According to Fox News, in a clip from the interview, Rittenhouse said he’s not racist and that he supports Black Lives Matter.

"This case has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self-defense," he said.

He and his attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense during the Kenosha shooting last year.

Patch has reached out to Smokin Jerry’s for comments.