When some of Kyle Rittenhouse’s fellow ASU students announced that they were collecting money for his legal fees, they were greeted with smears and jeers. On Friday, after a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts, those students knew all of the abuse they took at the hands or media, fellow students, and politicos was worth it.
In the case of College Republicans United – Arizona (CRU), student members elected to contribute half of their club’s funds to Rittenhouse’s defense. The students, as conservative in their spending as they are in their policy preferences, consulted with their former advisor Dr. Charles Loftus prior to sending off their hard-to-come-by dues.
Loftus, an expert in Criminal Justice and counter-terrorism, had studied the facts of the Rittenhouse case and told the students that he felt confident the 18-year-old acted in self-defense. As a result, the CRU students felt confident that their money was not helping out a racist vigilante and cold-blooded murderer.
“Last year our student organization gave away half our funds to Kyle Rittenhouse for his attorney fees. We were roasted heavily by national media, the rino college republicans, and angry liberals,” CRU president Rick Thomas told the Arizona Daily Independent on Friday. “Kyle was just acquitted and is now officially free. Today we are doing another fundraiser for Kyle to sue the media for malpractice, libel, and defamation. We hope this action will teach a lesson to those who profit from lies and that Kyle has a comfortable life from this ordeal.”
The members of CRU know what it means to be smeared. This fall, a vile anti-Semitic poster with the organization’s name on it was turned over to University officials, claiming it was hate speech from the group. CRU members quickly disavowed the poster and denied any association with it, but their rivals, the College Republicans, pounced on the matter and hurled ugly accusations at their fellow conservatives.
According to University sources, a person of interest as the creator and distributor of the poster has been identified, but until charges are filed that person enjoys FERPA protections.
Rittenhouse enrolled in ASU online in mid-October. He is registered as a non-degree-seeking online student but hopes someday to enter a nursing program.
Vindicated and with half of their financial resources gone, the CRU students hope that others, who support Rittenhouse, might donate to the group.
“The money left over for Republicans United had been used to expand our organization to multiple states throughout 2021,” Thomas told the Arizona Daily Independent. “We’ve been able to send reps to AFPAC, Vegas for our California College Republican convention, Washington DC, and provide legal protection for students refusing to cooperate with authoritarian COVID-19 mandates at their universities. If you can’t donate, please share and spread the word.”
For his part, Loftus said that he hopes to see a Go Fund Me style effort help pay for Rittenhouse’s schooling at ASU. “A Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing costs around $70,000, and I’m sure that kind of fundraiser would be successful. Rittenhouse has had his reputation irreparably harmed, like Richard Jewell in the 1990’s, and he deserves a successful path forward. An ASU degree can help and I’m eager to see ASU live by its own Charter.
ASU’s charter states, ‘ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom we exclude, but rather by whom we include and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.’”
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— iVoteArizona™ (@iVoteArizona) November 11, 2021