The White House refuses to apologize for President Biden’s portrayal of exonerated teenager Kyle Rittenhouse as a dangerous white supremacist.

Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Tuesday if “the president will ever apologize” to Rittenhouse for his comments that the teenager this week called “real nastiness” and “defamation of my character” .

But Psaki deviated, saying it was “a campaign video posted last year who used President Trump’s own words in a debate as he refused to condemn white supremacists and militias.

“And President Trump… didn’t just refuse to condemn militia groups on the debate stage, he actively encouraged them throughout his presidency,” she said.

“So what we’ve seen are the tragic consequences of that – when people think it’s okay to take justice into their own hands instead of letting law enforcement do their job,” a- she declared.

“And the president believes in the condemnation of hatred, division and violence. This is exactly what was done in this video, ”she said of the clip viewed more than 3.7 million times on Biden’s official presidential Twitter.

Fox News‘ Peter Doocy pushed further with the White House press secretary, pointing out that Biden’s claims that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist and that he was part of a militia had not been “proven then. of the trial ”, which ended with the adolescent acquitting all charges.

Psaki smiled when Doocy pointed out that “Rittenhouse says the president was malevolent in defaming his character.”

“The president spoke about the verdict last week,” Psaki said, referring to a statement in which the commander-in-chief suggested he was “angry and concerned” about the jury’s verdict.

“He obviously condemned the hatred, division and violence that we have seen across the country by groups like the Proud Boys and groups that this individual posed in photos with,” Psaki said.

She was referring to a photo Rittenhouse said he was tricked into taking by a lawyer he later fired, and which his murder trial judge forbade from using.

“Beyond that, I defer to his comments on the verdict,” Psaki said.