Kyle Rittenhouse, the American conservative influencer acquitted of homicide in 2021 after fatally shooting two people during a Black Lives Matter protest, has been hospitalised following a venomous spider bite — and responded to the ordeal with characteristic defiance.
The 23-year-old posted a photograph of himself in hospital, hooked up to heart monitors and intravenous drips, with visible red marks on his thigh consistent with a brown recluse spider bite. “The communists couldn’t take me out and I’ll be damned if I let a brown recluse take me out,” he wrote on social media.
A brown recluse is a rarely encountered but highly dangerous species whose complex venom can cause serious tissue injury and, in severe cases, death, according to the National Capital Poison Center. Rittenhouse appeared to make light of the situation, adding that he wished he was Spider-Man following the bite — before posting a second photograph of himself preparing to fire a rifle, alongside the message: “The spider, like the commies, also thought it was a good idea to come after me while I was armed. He did not survive.”
Rittenhouse has remained a deeply polarising figure in the United States since a jury found him not guilty in November 2021 on five felony charges, including murder, for the shootings of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and the wounding of a third person during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the summer of 2020. The events took place during protests following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
The verdict drew sharply divided reactions. Then-President Joe Biden said he was “angry and concerned” but stated he stood by the jury’s decision. Donald Trump, whom Rittenhouse supports, congratulated him, saying he had been found “INNOCENT of all charges.” Performer Bette Midler was among those who expressed outrage, writing on social media that it was “a tragic, tragic day for decent, thinking, feeling, ethical people everywhere.” Separate civil lawsuits brought by victims and their families against Rittenhouse have continued since the acquittal.
Since the verdict, Rittenhouse has reinvented himself as a right-wing content creator and influencer, building a significant following on YouTube centred on his interest in firearms and the Second Amendment. He has also undertaken speaking engagements discussing the Kenosha events and gun rights, funded in part by more than a million dollars raised through crowdfunding for his legal defence.
