Open Line Friday Callers Weigh in on the Rittenhouse Verdict

BUCK: We said we’d take some calls. We want to do that now. We’ve got John in Savannah, Georgia, one of my favorite places to visit for a weekend. What’s up, John?

CALLER: Hey, Buck, how are you?

BUCK: Good. What’s on your mind?

CALLER: Hey, I just wanted to know, you’ve got — you have two trials, rather one that just finished, one that’s going on close to me in Brunswick, Georgia. What do you think the outcome’s going to be? Both are using self-defense and you’ve had video prominently used in both trials. What do you think the outcome’s going to be with the jury’s decision and what do you think might happen depending on what happens in Kenosha over the next couple of days, tonight, and going forward —

BUCK: I’ll speak for myself and then I’ll let Clay because we haven’t really dealt with the — I’m not as — I became very up on and was reading transcripts of and obviously watching a lot of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. I am familiar with the basics of the Ahmaud Arbery trial but I need to dive into it more this weekend and now I have the time to do so. Clay, how about you?

CLAY: Same, Buck. I mean, I was all-in on Rittenhouse. We paid a lot of attention to it. The Arbery trial I’m, frankly, not as plugged in on and so I don’t even feel comfortable giving a prediction. By the way, one other unique thing with this show, we’ll tell you if we don’t think we have a strong enough opinion and enough data.

Let me say this, by the way, Buck. In the last couple of minutes Joe Biden has said, asked about the verdict, “I didn’t watch the trial. I stand by what the jury has concluded. The jury system works, and we have to abide by it.” We’ll see whether or not —

BUCK: That’s about the most —

CLAY: Tepid.

BUCK: — whatever — yeah, the most boilerplate you can imagine. How about justice was done in America today and we should all respect — oh, no. Oh, no. Not from Joe Biden. John in Savannah, thanks, we will — Clay and I will look more on the Ahmaud Arbery trial over the weekend. Mike in Cypress Gardens, Florida. Hey, Mike.

CALLER: Yes, sir. How you doing today?

BUCK: Good.

CALLER: I am still very concerned. And here’s the reason why. Even though Kyle Rittenhouse was found innocent for defending himself, what I want to know is, is dropkick man, who knocked him down to the ground to begin with, then the skateboard man that tried to bash his brains in, then pistol man, who admitted he pointed the pistol at Kyle Rittenhouse while he was on the ground, my concern is — and I already know the answer to my questions — are they ever gonna be charged with aggravated assault or anything else like that? And my answer is no. And I think that’s the problem. Until these people are found responsible for their actions, they’re just gonna keep doing it. And they don’t care if they die. They don’t care. This battle is not over.

CLAY: Well, I think the bigger picture question here is — and this is one the caller from Brunswick I think just asked — what is the reaction gonna be in Kenosha? Is the looting, pillaging, burning, rioting scenes that we saw from last summer, has that now been extinguished because Joe Biden is president? And the discussion we had earlier, Buck, is, you can’t blame Donald Trump for the violence that ensues now. It’s on Biden. Will that lead to a resurgence in violence? Or is it going to be relatively muted, that is, the response to Rittenhouse and potentially with Arbery?

I’ll also say this. Black Lives Matter is not going to be as active when white assaulters are killed here. I think the reaction if Ahmaud Arbery’s — if the guys who are charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery would be different because there you have the black victim, here there’s no black victim.

BUCK: If you had had a black victim, you would have no video evidence, Kyle Rittenhouse would be spending the rest of his life in prison, most likely. That’s the reality I think of how this would have those two things together, it would — because of the narrative, because the way, the prosecutors were, it is amazing actually didn’t, I’m glad, obviously, this was the just verdict. They didn’t get a mistrial considering some of the things that they did. They were going with everything they could to stack the deck. They were trying every kind of play around the edges and even dirty trick to make Kyle Rittenhouse look worse. I think they should be up on sanctions, honestly. I think the prosecutors were really skating around the edges.

CLAY: Yeah, I think what they’ll be held by is the fact that it took four days. I mean, I thought this might be a 45-minute jury — I mean, candidly I think I said on the show, like, I expect for the jury to come back quickly. It’s what the Kyle Rittenhouse defense attorney said. And I will say this, Buck, ’cause I started coughing when I was gonna try to say it earlier. They took a lot of onus off the judge ’cause I think this judge wanted to grant a mistrial but what he wanted to do instead of grant a mistrial was have a verdict —

BUCK: Let the jury decide.

CLAY: — took it out of his hands and all the criticism of the judge is going to vanish now because the jury unanimously agreed this not-guilty verdict.

BUCK: This is a reminder for all the system can work, but our system can only work if people of courage, honor, and conviction are willing to do what it takes within the system. We need good people. We need people that will actually do their civic duty with seriousness, with decency, with kindness, and that’s this jury I think in a lot of ways representative of the best of us. We want to get to Margaret in New Jersey, what do you got for us?

CALLER:  Thank you so much for taking my call. I have to say that I am holding my breath and I am praying that this weekend is a peaceful weekend because I’m really worried about our country. I feel that he had a fair trial. I thought the judge was impartial. And this is justice. This is our country. This is what we’re founded on. And the fact that we have to sit here and fear that people are going to disagree with this verdict is really sad. I’m worried and I’m sad. And I’m happy at the same time. I’m glad that he received a fair trial. That’s how I feel.

BUCK: Margaret, we appreciate that. I have the same sense here. I do not believe it is highly likely that there will be really widespread riots in Kenosha, at least, in response to this, but I don’t know. And we will certainly be watching this over the weekend. But at least the right verdict came down, at least justice was done, and we shall see how it goes from there.