NBC News contributor and presidential historian Michael Beschloss faced backlash Wednesday for suggesting that the Highland Park shooter traveled to Wisconsin because of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Alleged Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo fatally shot seven people and injured over forty more at the Fourth of July Parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday. The suspected shooter reportedly escaped to Madison, Wisconsin later that day to drop his phone in an attempt to mislead authorities before returning to Illinois.
“Why did Highland Park person of interest choose to drive after the mass murder to Wisconsin, of all places,” Beschloss tweeted on Tuesday. “Any possibility that Highland Park person drove to Wisconsin after yesterday’s atrocity in the knowledge that Kyle Rittenhouse was ‘acquitted of all charges’ after shootings there?”
Any possibility that Highland Park person drove to Wisconsin after yesterday’s atrocity in the knowledge that Kyle Rittenhouse was “acquitted of all charges” after shootings there?
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 5, 2022
Rittenhouse was tried and acquitted of all charges related to the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber at a Black Lives Matter riot in Kenosha in August 2020. He was also acquitted of additional charges in the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz.
Critics immediately hit back at the historian for the comparison between Rittenhouse and Crimo. (RELATED: Rabbi Recalls ‘Strange’ Visit The Alleged Highland Park Shooter Previously Paid To His Synagogue)
“Wait, do you actually believe trials are held in the state in which the arrest is made, as opposed to where the crime was committed?” Washington Examiner columnist T. Becket Adams said. “You’re a grown man and you believe this?”
Wait, do you actually believe trials are held in the state in which the arrest is made, as opposed to where the crime was committed? You’re a grown man and you believe this?
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) July 6, 2022
Tell me that you don’t understand penal law, criminal psychology and Midwest geography in two simple Tweets. pic.twitter.com/uCiNmZ3oox
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) July 6, 2022
No one can be this dumb, right?
Beschloss knows that you’re tried where the crime occurred, not where you’re caught, doesn’t he?
The WI state line is only a 35 min drive north from Highland Park. Most bad guys flee the state. https://t.co/noGhxRDr3u
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) July 6, 2022
And did he dress like his mother because he’s starring in Psycho V?
You are a risible clown. https://t.co/pKt3OF6SVd
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) July 6, 2022
My political writing career would have been much easier, and clearly more profitable, if I had focused more on creative outrage and idiocy like this than bothering with research and attempting to apply reason to my views. https://t.co/yf2QvKtVYE
— Chad Felix Greene 🇺🇲 (@chadfelixg) July 6, 2022
And we thought it was history that’s hard https://t.co/zVZZNlR9Tc https://t.co/k5Sde0RgLJ
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) July 6, 2022
NBC News pays this ghoulish shit bag. https://t.co/AIaVOpuL2N
— Chris Barron 🇺🇸 (@ChrisRBarron) July 6, 2022
Police said Crimo had two prior encounters with law enforcement in 2019 after he attempted suicide and later threatened to “kill everyone.” Authorities reportedly confiscated 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from his home. Surveillance footage reportedly showed that an unknown female witness saw Crimo drop an object into a red bag.