Kyle Rittenhouse Lauded as Husband Material at Women's Leadership Summit

Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who fatally shot two men and wounded a third during protests in 2020, was paraded as an ideal marriage suitor at a "women's leadership" conference.

The claims were made during the annual Young Women's Leadership Summit, run by conservative organization Turning Point USA, which was held from Thursday, June 2, through Saturday, June 4, in Grapevine, Texas.

Although the conference was billed as promoting women's leadership, much of the advice seemed geared towards encouraging the attendees—who were all of high school or college age—to find a husband to look after them and focus on having babies and becoming homemakers.

And Rittenhouse was unveiled as a potential suitor during the event. The 19-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, was just 17 when he set out armed with a semi-automatic rifle to riots in Kenosha, in the neighboring state of Wisconsin on August 25, 2020.

That night, he shot three people, killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. The civil unrest had been sparked by the police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.

Although Rittenhouse and the men he shot were all white, the case polarized Americans on the issues of race, the Black Lives Matter movement, gun control, and vigilantism. Rittenhouse, who was charged with two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide, insisted he had only acted in self-defense and he was unanimously found not guilty by a jury at his trial in November 2021.

Just a month after the shootings, video footage emerged which reports alleged showed Rittenhouse repeatedly punching a girl during a scuffle that had broken out between a group of teenagers just weeks before the riots. Newsweek has attempted to contact Rittenhouse about those allegations. The judge barred prosecutors from playing the video at his trial.

Despite Rittenhouse's complicated past, Turning Point USA's Chief Creative Officer Benny Johnson was in no doubt that the teenager would make a good romantic match for any of the young women at the leadership summit. He asked the crowd: "Who in this room is unmarried? Oh my! OK. Well, Kyle Rittenhouse is backstage!"

Once he had brought Rittenhouse out to join him, the political columnist introduced him by telling the audience: "I want to talk a lot about what kind of man you should want to be attracted to... Men: your number one goal is to protect your family and to stand strong in the face of opposition from culture and evil, and Kyle Rittenhouse is a man who does that." As whoops and cheers broke out, Johnson added: "God bless Kyle Rittenhouse."

Rittenhouse appeared to ask: "Do I say anything?" Then at a nod from the host, he turned to the crowd and said: "Thank you guys for all the support and everything. Thank you guys for the prayers, and thank you guys for being strong women!"

Earlier, Johnson had suggested the young women should focus on having children. He boiled down his advice into six succinct words, pumping his fist as he screamed: "More Americans! More babies! Let's go!"

It's not clear how many people attended the event, although the group's website said: "Thousands of female student activists between the ages of 15 and 26 will be invited to attend... [and] receive first-class activism and leadership training.... Following a TPUSA conference, these activists return to their campuses more energized than ever and with the proper tools and training on how to defend conservatism on their campus."

Other speakers at the summit included political commentator Candace Owen, who took to the stage of the women's leadership conference and advised the attendees to "let men lead."

Responding to a question from an audience member about how to "attract good men", she replied that men don't like women who "act like men" by pursuing a career, and added: "I'm a big believer: let men lead. When I say 'lead,' understand: the man is the head of the household, but the woman is the neck." She drew huge cheers.

Most of the speakers at the event were women, and included TV producer Lara Trump (daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump), Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congresswoman Kat Cammack, and former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Rittenhouse has become something of a poster boy for the right, although his future remains unclear. He said he hadn't made any money from his publicity tour after the trial. Last week, he announced he was due to attend Texas A&M University but the institution released a statement saying he was not enrolled as a student. He also revealed he has plans to sue the media and celebrities for branding him a murderer, despite his acquittal. And he is also said to be considering writing a book about his life experiences.

Newsweek has reached out to Turning Point USA and Rittenhouse.