On Thursday, hours before he was slated to attend a reception in honor of Black History Month, Donald Trump weighed in on the racially tinged political clusterfuck du jour in the only way he knows how: by treating wounded liberal activists with a shotgun blast of rock salt. “@JussieSmollett,” he tweeted, “what about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!? #MAGA.” Self-serving logic aside, it was a rare moment of vindication for the president: actor Jussie Smollett’s story of being assaulted by two racist and homophobic Trump supporters had crumbled.
Even before Chicago police charged the Empire actor with filing a false police report, the Smollett affair had metastasized into a nationwide political fracas, with a liberal coalition of activists, politicians, and media figures using the alleged attack as a proxy to denounce Trump, Trumpism, and the right. As I reported earlier this week, conservatives professed to be skeptical from the beginning, sensing that the details of the attack (bleach, noose, MAGA hats) were too perfectly designed to light up woke Twitter erogenous zones. “I mean, people were hoping the story was true, and then they could jump on Republicans for not having been quick enough to embrace the story,” the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro told me at the time. “That’s what happened here. And that’s a bad tendency. The story itself was not supremely credible from the very first. It was perfectly tailored to fit a narrative.”
As Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson excoriated Smollett during a press conference on Thursday—“Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?”—the right pounced. “Oh come on Cook County prosecutor. This is undercharged. @JussieSmollett should be charged with a HATE CRIME enhancer,” tweeted David Clarke Jr., a former Milwaukee County sheriff and a high-profile Trump supporter, upon hearing that Smollett faces up to three years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine. “He targeted white males, heterosexuals, and Trump supporters based on their race or sexual orientation. Where is the deterrence message?” (Both Johnson and Clarke are also black.)
Others piled on. Don Jr. went on a multi-tweet tear blasting media coverage of the case, while others suggested that media bigwigs were hypocritical for firing Roseanne Barr over one racist tweet (actually several racist tweets) while not immediately firing Smollett.
At his press conference, Johnson appeared exasperated that anyone cared so much about a B-list actor. “I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention,” he sighed. But for aggrieved conservatives, the Smollett imbroglio represents something else: an inflection point for those who have long claimed the left abuses victimhood status for attention and fame. Smollett, who ostensibly staged the attack to get a raise, has become Patient Zero. And the people he duped—Don Lemon, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi—are all his enablers.
The fiasco, combined with the remarkable details of the case (Smollett allegedly paid his assailants by check) could have pernicious long-term consequences. Among other things, it might give Republicans cover to doubt a very real rise in hate crimes, particularly against black and L.G.B.T.Q. people, arguing that any attention they receive is another case of victimhood culture gone too far. (As always, Ann Coulter said the quiet part out loud: “Alright, this particular hate crime turned out to be a hoax, but let’s remember, ALL OF THEM are hoaxes.”)
On the left, a wave of self-reflection has already begun—Smollett owes young, gay black men “not just an apology, but a lifetime of atonement,” said an emotional Van Jones on Thursday. Conservatives want the rest of Woke Twitter to get on board, too. But it’s hard to imagine that any amount of public flagellation will appease critics of the media’s somewhat blinkered response to the gaps in Smollett’s story. And so the people who were initially sympathetic to the actor are not entirely unreasonable in their reluctance to eat humble pie. In our tribal, post-apology body politic, there’s no upside for anybody except whomever is taking the victory lap.
“Sean Hannity’s going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second. Tucker Carlson is going to eat Jussie Smollett’s lunch every single second,” predicted CNN host Don Lemon, who had previously texted Smollett in solidarity. “The president of the United States is going to eat his lunch.” The following morning, he did.
— A Republican mission to stop Trump?
— Howard Schultz defends his controversial potential presidential bid
— The suspected leaker of Jeff Bezos’s texts has his own theory about the affair
— Yes, Kamala Harris did inhale
— The shocking details behind the double kidnapping of an Idaho teen
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.
