“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough had some advice for Kyle Rittenhouse after the 18-year-old was seen being cheered as he walked onstage at a conservative event in Arizona on Monday.
On Wednesday’s installment of the MSNBC morning show, Scarborough and his panelists – co-host Mika Brzezinski, “Way Too Early” host Jonathan Lemire, and former BBC News presenter Katty Kay – discussed the standing ovation Rittenhouse received at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.
“He’s 18 years old,” Kay commented. “I don’t know, maybe you do dumb stuff when you’re 18 and he thinks this is his moment when he can have five minutes of fame. It’s an awful indictment of, of the polarization of the country and of the people that are trying to make somebody who killed two people a hero for any reason.”
Scarborough responded to Kay, saying it appeared those around the 18-year-old, who was found not guilty of homicide last month, were trying to “exploit him.”
“You bring up a great point: He’s 18 years old, and when he visits politicians and other people who are trying to exploit him and exploit what happened in Wisconsin, and the killing of two people, the injuring of a third, it’s important to remember, he’s 18,” Scarborough said. “You look at the adults – it’s the adults that are actually bringing him out onto the stage, getting him in pictures, lifting him up so they can get more Twitter mentions or more Facebook Mentions or whatever. … It’s the adults right now.”
“I know 18 is an adult,” Scarborough quickly added.
He continued: “And if we’re going to focus on, I think, people who are really acting recklessly, let’s focus on those that are — the older adults … that are exploiting this tragedy.”
Scarborough, a former congressman for Florida, said he believes Rittenhouse should “keep his head down, return to a normal life … take care of himself and not be exploited by adults … by political hacks, basically.”