(AP Photo/Jeff Dean, file)

Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance took to the conservative airwaves this week to defend Kyle Rittenhouse’s “basic manly virtue.”

On Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports”, Vance said, “instead of saying, you know, isn’t it good that a 17-year-old kid who was raised by a single mother made good decisions and decided to be a positive force in his community” that Rittenhouse had been “slandered and lied about.”

“They treated basic manly virtue as white supremacy,” he said. It wasn’t immediately clear who “they” were.

Rittenhouse was fully acquitted on multiple felony counts last week relating to his actions during the Kenosha, Wis. protests last August.

A 17-year-old at the time, he traveled from his home in Antioch, Ill. to Kenosha. Over the course of the night, Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two.

Vance told Kelly, “it’s not just about Kyle Rittenhouse.” He said the question was what sort of “young men do we want to raise in our communities. What kind of virtues do we want our leaders to promote?”

Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party, said, “J.D. Vance is desperately and dangerously trying to remain relevant in the clown show that is the Republican Senate primary. But his bad Josh Mandel impression won’t distract voters from the fact that he’s a Silicon Valley multimillionaire who has sold Ohio out time and again.”