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Rittenhouse Judge’s Phone Rings During Court: Trump’s Campaign Theme Song is Ringtone

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The partiality of Kyle Rittenhouse’s judge has been questioned for some time now, given some peculiar rulings, and some downright inexplicable rulings.

Many people believed it was grossly unfair that the judge would not let the prosecution refer to the victims as “victims,” because that’s such a loaded word, it implies innocence and something bad happened to them, the judge explained. That sounded like an unbelievable stretch (to get that technical) and certainly isn’t the norm, but it turns out it is the normal policy for this judge, at least according to an NPR report earlier today.

But many things are quite abnormal, according to Vanity Fair:

Elsewhere in pretrial fun, Schroeder let Rittenhouse out on a $2 million bail, which was crowdfunded by people who think he did nothing wrong; refused to issue a new arrest warrant for Rittenhouse after prosecutors argued he had violated the terms of his bond; and said that he would allow the defense to introduce evidence of police officers telling the 17-year-old “we appreciate you.” Oh, and there was also this, per Mystal:

At the same time, Schroeder announced that he [would] not allow prosecutors to introduce evidence of Rittenhouse’s prior disposition to sh00t people. There is video of Rittenhouse watching from a car as people leave a CVS: He calls them “looters” and says that he wishes he had a gun to sh00t them. The video was taken in August 2020, about two and a half weeks before Rittenhouse shot up the streets of Kenosha. There are also photos from January 2020 of Rittenhouse posing with members of the Proud Boys. Both the video and the photos will be excluded, but the police patting Rittenhouse on the head like a good little white supremacist will be included.

The judge had to ensure that the jury got to see that the cops sure appreciated the little rascal who came to help them out and shoot down some…

But then something very, very odd happened today. The judge’s phone went off. THAT, in and of itself, is odd because the first thing a judge tells everyone in a courtroom is to leave their phones off. A judge should never be caught as the biggest hypocrite in the room. Moreover, the judge didn’t just have his phone, it looked to be sitting right out on the bench, right near the microphone. And when the call went off, it wasn’t on silent, people on Twitter say it was the theme song Trump used in his campaign: Proud to be an American:

For those unfamiliar with the full song:

Though the song itself is neutral, the use of the song is far far from neutral. It is, as close as one can get, to a MAGA-Republican national anthem and has been for thirty years. Trump used it in every appearance, we watched and by god, it felt like we watched them all.

Some are pointing to a picture in which the judge is supposedly throwing the “W-P” white power sign. But we at this site (or at least me when I was full time at this site) always cast some doubt on that one because we’ve all made the “okay” sign and sometimes when we’re trying to get a subtle point across, we use the same hand position. Posing for a picture? That’s different, but this? Well… make up your own mind:

But we don’t need to know if the above is a white power sign. That phone was apparently sitting on the desk, right under the microphone, and should not have even been in the courtroom, or at least covered up. Something really stinks about that theme played in that moment.

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jmiciak
Substack: Much Ado About Everything

Jason Miciak
meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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