Politics
Jussie Smollett On MAGA Hats: ‘I Never Said That!’
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“Empire” star Jussie Smollett disputed the narrative that his alleged January attackers wore Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats in an interview with “Good Morning America” Thursday.
“I never said that!” Smollett said.
“I didn’t need to add anything like that,” Smollett said. “They called me a [bleep]. They called me a [bleep]. There’s no which way you cut it. I don’t need some MAGA hat as the cherry on top of some racist sundae.”
Smollett has claimed two men beat him up, tied a rope around his neck, said racial and homophobic slurs and threw an unidentified chemical substance on him on Jan. 29, according to The Associated Press.
Several media sources reported on the alleged attackers wearing MAGA hats.
He claimed in a follow-up interview with the Chicago Police Department that the men said, “This is MAGA country.”
Smollett also challenged another narrative that the attack was the result of a date gone wrong.
“I’ve heard that it was a date gone bad, which I so resent that narrative,” Smollett said. “I’m not going to go out and get a tuna sandwich and a salad to meet somebody. That’s ridiculous. And it’s offensive. Yes, there’s Grinder, yes, there’s Jack’d, yes there’s all of these things which I have not been on in years. I can admit that I was on it back in the day. I was single. You know what I’m saying? But I haven’t been on that in years.”
Smollett initially refused to hand over phone records, but then gave police a “heavily redacted” version of the logs.
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