Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted of all charges after pleading self-defence in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the Unites States' debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice.
Prominent Republicans have demanded that Joe Biden "publicly apologise" for suggesting that Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted of murdering two protesters in Wisconsin last year was a white supremacist.
It came as Americans demonstrated across the US after Rittenhouse, 18, was cleared of all charges in a politically divisive casethat has split America once again.
The ruling sparked protests in cities across the country - from New York to Portland, Oregon - on Friday night.
Kyle Rittenhouse closes his eyes and cries as he is found not guilty on all counts. Photo / AP
Portland police declared a riot after protesters from a crowd of around 200 smashed windows and doors of city facilities and hurled objects at police.
The city's police chief said officers were preparing plans for the rest of the weekend.
Biden said he, like "many Americans", was "angry and concerned" at the verdict but appealed for calm.
But the US president is now under fire for linking Rittenhouse to "white supremacist and militia groups" last year in a campaign video which attacked Donald Trump for failing to disavow the groups.
The video featured an image of the teenager brandishing his AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle during the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020, alongside footage of white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia.
There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night. pic.twitter.com/Q3VZTW1vUV
A jury found Rittenhouse not guilty of reckless and intentional homicide and other charges for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28, during violent protests over the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer last summer.
Following the teenager's acquittal, Tom Cotton, a Republican senator for Arkansas, said Biden had "slandered" the teenager.
"If he had any decency, Biden would apologise publicly —not attack the jury for following the law," he said.
Rittenhouse's mother, Wendy, has also angrily accused Biden of defaming her son.
"He is not a white supremacist. He is not a racist," she said in a recent interview. "President Biden doesn't know my son, whatsoever".
The comments were echoed by other prominent conservatives, such as the Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who suggested the president could be guilty of defamation.
Biden's spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, has refused to comment on the video, saying: "What I can reiterate for you is the president's view that we shouldn't have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons."
Peter Doocy grills Psaki on Biden suggesting that Kyle Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist” pic.twitter.com/JZuBIpbU7c
In his first comments since the verdict, Rittenhouse said he was relieved that his "rough journey" had come to an end.
"The jury reached the correct verdict - self-defence is not illegal," Rittenhouse was quoted as saying by Fox News ahead of a tell-all interview to be shown Monday evening.
"I'm glad that everything went well... We made it through the hard part."
Rittenhouse's lawyers have said the teenager now plans to become a nurse, although his family will likely move from their home in Illinois after facing death threats.
The case has come to represent the nation's polarisation, with both sides of the political divide using it to advance their competing narratives, in part because it arose from the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept the country last year and featured a controversial mix of guns, racial tensions and vigilantism.
Rittenhouse has become a hero of the conservative right, who believe the teenager acted in self-defence while patriotically patrolling the streets while armed in the name of protecting private property.
Trump branded the trial "a witch hunt from the Radical Left".
U.S. President Joe Biden. Photo / AP
"Great news for Kyle Rittenhouse, who we knew was innocent all along," he told supporters.
"And by the way, if that's not self-defence, nothing is!"
Gun control advocates, meanwhile, have suggested the verdict will embolden vigilantes and militia groups who seek to take the law into their own hands.
Liberals have also denounced Rittenhouse's acquittal as further evidence of a racially biased criminal justice system.
Rittenhouse, like the men he shot, is white, but racial justice activists have suggested a black defendant may have produced a different outcome.
Colin Kapernick, the American footballer and civil rights activist, said: "This only further validates the need to abolish our current system."
