LeBron James Clowns Kyle Rittenhouse Over Crying in Court Footage: ‘What Tears?’

Rittenhouse, who's charged with killing two people at a protest last year, took the stand this week and again pushed his self-defense claims.

lebron james mocks kyle rittenhouse
Image via Getty/Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times
lebron james mocks kyle rittenhouse

LeBron James found much to be amused by in widely shared footage of Kyle Rittenhouse taking the stand in his homicide trial this week.

As in-court clips of the Kenosha shooter started making the rounds on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening, the Los Angeles Lakers star took to Twitter assess Rittenhouse’s performance. LeBron also joked that Rittenhouse’s heavily screenshotted and photographed facial expressions could likely be attributed to having eaten sour candy before entering the courtroom.

“What tears?????” he said. “I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court.”

Previously, LeBron shared a brief reaction on Twitter to news that Rusten Sheskey—the white cop who shot Jacob Blake—wouldn’t be facing charges. 

Rittenhouse shot and killed two men, as well as injured another, amid protests against police brutality in Wisconsin last August. The protests had been spurred by police in Kenosha shooting Jacob Blake in the back. The trial for Rittenhouse—whose charges include first-degree intentional homicide—began earlier this month.

As expected, Rittenhouse pushed claims of having acted in self-defense during his comments on Wednesday. He also claimed to have been threatened by Joseph Rosenbaum, whom he shot and killed. Pushed about this by the prosecution, however, Rittenhouse agreed that Rosenbaum hadn’t done anything physically aggressive to him and hadn’t physically touched his body. Anthony Huber was also shot and killed by Rittenhouse, while Gaige Grosskreutz was injured.

At one point during his time on the stand on Wednesday, Rittenhouse was asked about the AR-15-style rifle he used during the protest. Rittenhouse said he chose that style because he wasn’t lawfully able to possess a pistol, though he later conceded that he “thought it looked cool” too.

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