Donald Trump took shots at Jussie Smollett during his campaign rally on Saturday night and used the alleged hoax scandal to fire up his base.
via Complex:
“It’s MAGA country,” Trump said to the audience in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “I didn’t hear that term until that third rate actor in Chicago went out and said I was beaten up by MAGA country, can you believe it?… Turned out to be a total lie.”
Trump’s comments were in regards to the drama surrounding Smollett’s highly publicized claims that he was the victim of a hate crime in February.
According to Smollett’s description of the events, two men attacked him near his residence in Chicago. During the incident, Smollett said his attackers yelled “It’s MAGA country” along with other homophobic slurs. He then said that the men put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him. However, after an investigation by the Chicago authorities, it was concluded that Smollett was never assaulted rather he staged the event for unspecified reasons. Now it seems that Trump is using the specifics of the falsified report as a rallying cry for his upcoming bid for re-election.
Yet, Trump didn’t focus solely on Smollett’s antics. He also criticized the way Chicago handled Smollett’s case. Instead of sentencing the actor to jail, the city decided to drop the charges after Smollett completed multiple undisclosed stipulations. While this is normal for crimes of this nature, Trump was not satisfied with Chicago’s execution of justice stating: “That case in Chicago is a disgrace to our nation.”
We wonder how many more times Trump will reference this incident during his campaign for reelection.
Pres. Trump refers to Jussie Smollett as “third rate actor in Chicago” during rally https://t.co/vCzpWKoYwh pic.twitter.com/3t0b6xqGlJ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 28, 2019
