The case of the openly gay television actor who has alleged that he was beaten up by racist homophobic Trump fans late Monday/early Tuesday at 2 a.m. grows more curious by the hour. Three days later, it’s not clear that an attack took place. And Jussie Smollett’s behavior has been odd.
On Tuesday, in response to a Joe Biden tweet expressing outrage over the alleged hate-crime assault on Smollett, longtime Chicago TV reporter Rafer Weigel of Fox 32 wrote: “Might be best to tone down the outrage on the #JussieSmollett story until more evidence comes in to suggest it actually happened.” Later the reporter added: “To be clear. I am not accusing [Smollett] of lying. I’m saying #ChicagoPD and Chicago FBI have been working round the clock & have found nothing to support it. And given the extremity of his claims and where they allegedly took place it has them skeptical.”
On Wednesday, police revealed that they have looked at hundreds of hours of surveillance video recorded around the area (near 300 E. North Lower Water Street) where Smollett says the attack took place. Police called it a “very high density” area for surveillance cameras, but they still have found no evidence that any assault took place. There are no witnesses and nothing like the assault described appears on any of the videos. What they have released are low-quality images of two “persons of interest” who crossed paths with Smollett and could have been witnesses or bystanders or even perpetrators.
TMZ led the way on the story Tuesday with claims that “sources directly connected to” the actor said that as Smollett was walking home from a Subway sandwich shop, someone yelled, “Aren’t you that faggot Empire n*****?’”
TMZ’s sources added that the two attackers were both white and wearing ski masks. They allegedly beat him so badly they broke one of his ribs, and also put a rope around his neck, yelled racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him, “and as they left they yelled, ‘This is MAGA country.’” A crudely lettered note sent to Fox’s Chicago studios last week made a death threat and an anti-gay slur against Smollett, but the actor turned down Fox’s offer to provide him with a round-the-clock security detail, according to TMZ.
Smollett did not initially mention the MAGA detail to police, according to a department spokesman. He waited until a subsequent interview with police later in the day on Tuesday to inform them of this. In addition, police said that Smollett couldn’t identify the race of his attackers because their faces were concealed and didn’t know what liquid was poured on him.
There is one possible piece of corroboration for Smollett’s story: He and his manager both say the two were talking on Smollett’s phone when the attack happened. The manager says he heard at least some of the attack, including the MAGA remark and the slurs. Police would like to examine Smollett’s phone to find out more. But they say he won’t give it to them.
Attention whore fake hate crime.
Chicago… MAGA country. Uh huh. No one can be found on hundreds of surveillance cameras in the area. He seemed to take a liking to the noose, wearing it for 45 minutes.
Ropes, physical violence, chemicals splashed about… sounds like the typical date night.
What is really encouraging is that the media seems to be holding fire until they actually have some proof. Is our little liberal media growing up?
It was colder than 19′ above zero at that time in Chicago that night.
Why is this relevant?
Smollett claims he had bleach thrown on him as a liquid.
Bleach turns to snow at 19′ above zero.
It would have looked like in this 30 second video:
@Nan G: My daughter showed my grandson how boiling water turns instantly to snow when tossed in the air while we were having our subzero temps , bro in laws heated birdbath had 3/8 inch of ice on the top.
We opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink because it is on an outside wall.
The last polar vortex all Two Rivers residents were requested to keep faucets dripping so the city pipes wouldnt burst.
No the person creating this story out of whole cloth just keeps getting more unbelievable by the minute.
I guess there just isn’t ENOUGH hatred around the country without some being created for no reason whatsoever. But, like the divisiveness and racial strife, it is generated by the left.