Back in February, actor Jussie Smollett found a roundabout way to unite our politically divided country.
Of course, that solidarity grew from outrage that Smollett had staged a hate crime against himself and filed a false report to Chicago police. The “Empire” star initially received a felony disorderly conduct charge in connection with his police report, which alleged two white men put a rope around his neck.
The charge was dropped, and the city of Chicago went on to sue Smollett for the cost of his false complaint.
After the incident, a conspiracy theory emerged on Reddit and elsewhere online that alleged Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were somehow involved in the hoax.
Today, Joe Hoft revived this conspiracy theory in a post on The Gateway Pundit that concludes: “What a corrupt mess the Democrats in Chicago have created. Is there any law in Illinois?”
Sure, Booker and Harris aren’t Chicago Democrats, but that should give you some idea of just how sound the logic is here.
After news broke of the alleged hate crime against Smollett, and before police discovered it was staged, the Senate passed a bill to make lynching a federal crime. Harris, Booker and Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) introduced the bill, which went on to have a total of 47 Democrat and Republican cosponsors.
Harris and Booker both cited the alleged attack against Smollett when arguing in support of the bill.
Less than a week after the bill cleared the Senate in February, news broke about Smollett’s arrest.
Hoft claims that a fake death threat letter and the hate crime hoax “were timed to create an opinion groundswell to support the bill and prop the political and professional career of the three masterminds.” But Hoft doesn’t have any evidence to back this up.
He points to Tweets where Harris and Booker describe the alleged attack against Smollett as “an attempted modern-day lynching.” He claims Smollett is friends with the Obamas and that the state’s attorney in Chicago is connected to Harris and Booker – all without actual evidence to demonstrate these relationships and how they are relevant at all to the theory that Harris and Booker somehow were behind Smollett’s farce.
Hoft failed to turn this conspiracy theory into anything more than that. And although there isn’t anything real to support it, the strongest piece of evidence against it is that the bill went on to die in the House. If Harris and Booker were such “masterminds,” why would they have stopped their manipulation of public opinion with the Senate bill?
Aside from that, police said Smollett staged the incident to boost his career, not for political reasons.
Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
We’re nonpartisan and nonprofit. Support Big If True.