Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and others immediately used the hoax to indict the country as a whole.
Empire actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty on five of six charges associated with staging a fake hate crime in January of 2019 on Thursday, close to three years after Smollett claimed to have been attacked by MAGA hat-clad, epithet-hurling white men on the streets of Chicago.
And while some doubted Smollett’s dubious-sounding story, many working in politics and the press fell hook, line, and sinker for it, using it as a pretext to condemn not just Smollett’s would-be attackers, but to indict the country writ large:
-President Joe Biden hastily tweeted that “what happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie.”
-Vice President Kamala Harris, then a potential presidential contender, insisted that “@Jussie Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.
-Senator Bernie Sanders saw it as emblematic of broader trends across the country, calling it “a horrific instance of the surging hostility toward minorities around the country. We must come together to eradicate all forms of bigotry and violence.”
-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deemed the “racist, homophobic attack… an affront to our humanity”
-Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged action, explaining that “there is no such thing as ‘racially charged.’ This attack was not “possibly” homophobic. It was a racist and homophobic attack. If you don’t like what is happening to our country, then work to change it. It is no one’s job to water down or sugar-coat the rise of hate crimes.”
-Fellow ‘Squad’ member Rashida Tlaib knew that there was deceit at work, but misplaced its source, declaring that “‘when one of the most famous black and gay men in America is not safe, the message is clearer than it has ever been.’ The dangerous lies spewing from the right wing is killing & hurting our people. Thinking of you @JussieSmollett, and my LGBTQ neighbors.”
-Congressman Eric Swalwell asserted that “hate crimes like this are happening more frequently, egged on by careless hate-filled rhetoric. We start reducing these crimes by rejecting the speech – neither can ever be accepted as normal.”
-Al Sharpton decried the incident as “despicable and outrageous,” proclaiming that “the guilty must face the maximum.”
-MSNBC host Joy Reid observed that “nooses never really disappeared as messages of a very specific kind of terror, but every time they’re used, my God, it’s chilling. Praying for Jussie’s full recovery. And for us all.”
-Senator Cory Booker used the hoax to promote one of his legislative initiatives, saying “the vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I’m glad he’s safe. To those in Congress who don’t feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime– I urge you to pay attention.” A couple weeks later, Booker stated that “the information is still coming out. I’m going to withhold until all the information actually comes out from on the record sources.”
–Variety ran a feature on Smollett, tweeting it out with the caption “‘I fought the f— back,’ Jussie Smollett proudly declared during his Troubadour encore, before jokingly adding, ‘I’m the gay Tupac.'”
-After Smollett’s story first began to fall apart less than a month after the purported attack occurred, the Daily Beast published a piece blasting not Smollett, but “The Right’s Empty Rage Against Jussie Smollett.”
-Similarly, New York Times columnist Charles Blow argued that “the case is little more than tabloid fodder that the media, spurred by wails from conservatives and always so desperately insecure about being accused of liberal bias, has pumped up and stretched out.” Of course, that was only after the story that the future president and vice president of the United States had issued statements on had fallen apart.
-CNN’s Brian Stelter threw his hands up in the air, declaring that “we may never really know what happened on the street that night in Chicago,” and lamenting that “he [Smollett] just wants to get back to work… he wants to act.” After he was criticized by the Washington Examiner‘s Tiana Lowe for his dishonest framing, Stelter shot back “cool. Were you there that night? Smollett’s camp says he was the victim of a hate crime. The police dispute that. There isn’t video of the alleged attack. Thus, we may never know what really happened.”
-Since the verdict, CNN has continued to cover itself in glory, titling its article on the verdict “Jussie Smollett Guilty on Some Charges.” Then in a separate “Analysis” piece, Oliver Darcy describes “How Sean Hannity and Right-Wing Media Personalities Are Using the Smollett Verdict to Attack the Media.” “Propagandists know that their power increases substantially when they can convince their audiences not to trust other sources of information. And so, Smollett’s case is very valuable to them,” writes Darcy.
-On Joy Reid’s blog — not exactly renowned for its friendliness to the LGBT causes — Ja’han Jones reacted to the verdict by making the oh-so profound point that “many on the right shamed those of us who knew such a claim [Smollett’s] was totally plausible — and then the Jan. 6 insurrection happened.”