Jussie Smollett's fake hate crime may have done real damage to actual victims. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson shared that concern during Thursday's press conference.
Thanks to the actor's false police report, in which he reportedly pretended to be attacked by two President Trump supporters, actual hate crimes may "now be met with a level of skepticism," Johnson feared. Or, they may be overlooked by the media, who flocked to the Smollett story.
We already have an example in California. As Matt reported Thursday, a conservative student at UC Berkeley was attacked on campus while trying to recruit members for the group Turning Points USA. Campus Reform captured the moment Hayden Williams, a Leadership Institute field representative, was punched on campus multiple times.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was outraged that the media isn't dedicating even a quarter of the coverage to this incident as they did to Smollett's tale.
"Can you imagine that happening to an African-American or to someone else on that campus?" Scott asked. "The kind of uproar that would have happened because of that hateful act would have had national attention, and yet only Fox News is covering it thoroughly."
Scott called on the university to act because their initial response was not good enough. The senator also took the opportunity to defend President Trump and his supporters. The president's policies, he noted, have actually been pretty beneficial for the African-American community.
"The MAGA hat has nothing to do with inciting racism," he said. "It's the Left that wants to demonize Donald Trump, even though we have the lowest unemployment rate we've seen in 50 years, even though we have the lowest African-American unemployment rate that we've had in the history of the country, even though we keep moving in the right direction."