They say hindsight is 20/20. And that’s certainly the case for some Democratic presidential hopefuls as twists continue to emerge in the case of the alleged attack on actor Jussie Smollett. When initial reports of the alleged incident surfaced three weeks ago, the actor said he was viciously attacked on the streets of Chicago. Reports stated that Smollett said there were two perpetrators, each wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and shouting "This is MAGA country" during the alleged assault. Smollett later refuted he made such a claim to police during an interview with "Good Morning America." Kamala Harris, considered the early front-runner among declared candidates, was quick to condemn the alleged attack. “. @JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery,” Harris tweeted on January 29. “This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.” JUSSIE SMOLLETT'S LAWYERS DENY HE PLANNED ATTACK AFTER CHICAGO POLICE CLAIM HE'S NO LONGER CONSIDERED A VICTIM IN CASE However, the California Dem was caught off guard Monday when asked about the latest developments in the case that has seen Chicago police pour cold water on Smollett’s more explosive claims. During an appearance at a bookstore in Concord, N.H., a female reporter asked the senator from California if she wanted to amend a tweet from Jan. 29, in which she said Smollett was the victim of "an attempted modern day lynching" and called the actor "one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know." Harris also has used the Smollett attack to push legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime. "Which tweet? What tweet?" Harris asked. As the reporter specified the tweet in question, Harris appeared to look around for a campaign staffer before responding. AL SHARPTON SAYS JUSSIE SMOLLETT SHOULD 'FACE ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE MAXIMUM' IF ATTACK WAS ORCHESTRATED "OK, so, I will say this about that case," she said. "I think that the facts are still unfolding, and, um, I’m very, um, concerned about obviously, the initial, um, allegation that he made about what might have happened. CORY BOOKER 'WITHHOLDING' JUDGMENT ON SMOLLETT CASE AFTER CALLING IT 'ATTEMPTED MODERN-DAY LYNCHING' "And it’s something we should all take seriously whenever anyone, um, alleges that kind of behavior, but there should be an investigation," Harris added. "And I think that once the investigation has concluded then we can all comment, but I’m not going to comment until I know the outcome of the investigation." Cory Booker also slammed the perpetrators of a crime the “Empire” star claimed was fueled by racial and anti-LGBT prejudice. “The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe,” Booker tweeted on January 29. “To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime – I urge you to pay attention.” ROBIN ROBERTS SAYS COPS FELT JUSSIE SMOLLETT WAS CREDIBLE AT TIME OF INTERVIEW Booker, when asked about it again on Sunday, told reporters he would "withhold" judgment on the matter "until all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources." Other 2020 Dems forced to walk back strong early criticisms include Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who initially responded to reports by calling it a “sickening and outrageous attack.” “This is a sickening and outrageous attack, and horribly, it's the latest of too many hate crimes against LGBTQ people and people of color. We are all responsible for condemning this behavior and every person who enables or normalizes it. Praying for Jussie and his family,” she tweeted on January 29. And while not a 2020 candidate, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also forced to backpedal on Monday, deleting a sympathetic tweet she posted on January 29. “The racist, homophobic attack on @JussieSmollett is an affront to our humanity. No one should be attacked for who they are or whom they love. I pray that Jussie has a speedy recovery & that justice is served. May we all commit to ending this hate once & for all,” Pelosi wrote at the time. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., were also both highly critical of the alleged attack when reports first surfaced. The change in tune came after a Chicago police spokesperson said over the weekend the "trajectory of the investigation" shifted and they no longer consider Smollett a victim in the case. Meanwhile, Smollett's attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, are vehemently denying that the attack was a hoax. "As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” the lawyers said in a weekend statement. “He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying." Fox News' Anne Marie Riha, Mike Tobin, Alex Pappas and Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Several Democratic presidential candidates spoke up when the actor Jussie Smollett described a hateful attack based on his race and sexual orientation in January. Not as many have spoken up since the police said the assault had been staged. Mr. Smollett surrendered to face a felony charge of filing a false police report on Thursday, after the police in Chicago said he hired two brothers for the assault. Mr. Smollett denies the accusation, and his legal team said Thursday that he “feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing.” [Latest update — For Jussie Smollett, how a life of arts and activism is upended.] At first, several Democratic presidential candidates expressed support for Mr. Smollett, who stars on the show “Empire.” Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker both called the reported assault a “modern day lynching,” comments that Republicans are now criticizing them for. In a Facebook post on Thursday, Ms. Harris said she was “sad, frustrated and disappointed” by the reports about Mr. Smollett. But other candidates have not publicly revisited their initial views of the case.<doc-sep>For Sens. Kamala D. Harris and Cory A. Booker, Democratic presidential candidates who were promoting an anti-lynching bill, the “attack” on actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago looked like a horrible yet opportune talking point. Instead, the apparent hoax is turning out to be a warning to 2020 Democratic candidates about singling out people for martyrdom, including the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault and the drum-banging American Indian who confronted Catholic high school students on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In the rush to speak too soon about the Smollett case, Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker stand out. Just before noon on Jan. 29, news reports emerged on social media that Mr. Smollett, an actor on the TV show “Empire,” had been attacked by two men yelling racial and homophobic slurs. He claimed the men said something about “MAGA country,” suggesting they were Trump supporters. Mr. Smollett said the two men put a rope around his neck. Five hours after the initial report, Ms. Harris, a former California attorney general, pronounced the attack genuine and called it “an attempted modern-day lynching.” “We must confront this hate,” she tweeted. But this week, confronted with growing indications that Mr. Smollett’s story was a hoax concocted to help his television career, Ms. Harris has become a devotee of caution. “I think that the facts are still unfolding,” she said. “I’m not going to comment until I know the outcome of the investigation.” Two brothers told police that the “Empire” actor staged an attack on himself because he was upset that a threatening letter he reported a week earlier did not receive enough attention, a law enforcement official told ABC News. The FBI is looking into whether Mr. Smollett concocted the letter. Mr. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, also was initially an unquestioning believer in a lynching. “To those in Congress who don’t feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime — I urge you to pay attention,” he tweeted hours after Mr. Smollett’s supposed attack came to light. But this week, staring at the possibility that he swallowed a hoax gullibly, the senator said he would withhold judgment on the case until “all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources.” Donald Trump Jr. called Ms. Harris’ newfound prudence “spineless spin.” “Strange she was all over it when she thought it could serve a purpose,” the president’s son posted on Twitter. “Shocked that after jumping all over it when the narrative suited them now suddenly they won’t comment.” He noted that even the Rev. Al Sharpton, who rose to prominence in the 1980s by defending a report of gang rape that was later discredited, called for “accountability” from Mr. Smollett after initially believing his story. Mr. Sharpton said this week of Mr. Smollett and two friends, “If it is found that Smollett and these gentlemen did, in some way, perpetrate something that is not true, they ought to face accountability to the maximum. Let us get to the bottom of it, and let justice be done, no matter who is right or wrong.” The president’s son commented, “Given the irony here of the past, it really says something that Sharpton is ahead of the pack of all the Democratic Presidential Hopefuls in condemning this terrible act of hate.” Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the episode couldn’t have taken hold in the public’s imagination without help from the mainstream media. “The media should be the most outraged,” she said in a Twitter message. “[Mr. Smollett] played all of them for fools. He knew they would cover it.” She said the actor “must be held accountable in the strictest way. He must repay resources used to investigate and serve time for the division he caused.” President Trump initially spoke out against the supposed hate crime when reporters asked him about it Jan. 31. “I can tell you that it’s horrible,” the president said. “It doesn’t get worse.” The Senate unanimously passed legislation Dec. 19 that would make lynching a federal crime. Proposed by Mr. Booker, Ms. Harris and Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, the measure classifies lynching as a hate crime and calls it “the ultimate expression of racism in the United States.” The House has not approved the bill. For many on the right, the Smollett case bears the pattern of media cooperation with liberal Democrats in promoting victimhood at the hands of conservatives. Christine Blasey Ford became a symbol of the #MeToo movement as she testified against then-Judge Kavanaugh this fall. Her uncorroborated story about a sexual assault in the 1980s gained acceptance from Democratic senators, who sought unsuccessfully to block his Supreme Court nomination. Likewise, many on the left rushed to condemn a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky who were videotaped in an encounter with drum-pounding American Indian Nathan Phillips. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, tweeted that the boys were protesting a woman’s right to choose and taunting a group of blacks. She later deleted the tweet. An investigation by private detectives for the Catholic Diocese of Covington found no wrongdoing by the boys. Blogger Matt Walsh, a conservative who often comments on religion and culture, said the episode showed that the media are “not smart.” “Journalists believed that psycho Trump fans were roving the streets of Chicago with a noose,” he tweeted. “They believed that a massive horde of white kids randomly accosted a Native American for no reason. They believed that a teenaged Brett Kavanaugh was part of an organized rape gang.” Grammy-winning performer Cardi B, who was born as Belcalis Almanzar, said on Instagram that she is “really disappointed in Jussie Smollett.” “I feel like he f—-ed up Black History Month, bro,” she said. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>That’s how Harris and Booker (among other politicians) ended up becoming part of the Jussie Smollett saga. Smollett alleged that on Jan. 29 he was beaten in Chicago by two men yelling racial and homophobic slurs. Both senators described the attack in the very same way on social media: “a modern-day lynching.” Apparently a noose was involved. But there’s just one problem: Smollett’s case has been unraveling, according to Chicago police, who say the hoax was somehow tied to the actor’s salary on the Fox drama “Empire.” He was arrested on Feb. 21 and charged with felony disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report. Booker and Harris have now had to tamp down their Twitter fire. Investigations need to happen, said Harris. No further comment until all the facts are in, said Booker.<doc-sep>
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota had some criticism for Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) Thursday morning after “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was charged for filing a false police report after claiming he was a victim of a hate crime at the hands of Trump supporters. Both 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls had initially tweeted their support for Smollett without using the word “alleged” about the attack. Their tweets from last month calling the alleged attack a “modern day lynching” remained up Thursday morning. .@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 29, 2019 The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe. To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime– I urge you to pay attention. https://t.co/EwXFxl5f2m — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) January 29, 2019 Booker and Harris said Monday that they were waiting for all the facts to emerge about the case before commenting further when questions arose about the alleged incident. “There was a rush to judgment, most all of the Democratic candidates weighed in on Twitter before they knew all of the facts of the case,” Camerota said of their reactions. CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson pointed out that both candidates did not use the word “alleged” in their initial commentary on the case. “Part of it is they are in this kind of, I think, environment where it's expected that people kind of come out and rush to judgment,” she said. “I think they played into that narrative,” Henderson added, referencing that Smollett said the attack had been carried out by Trump supporters. ”I think they're going to have to learn from this. I mean, remember, at least Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, they are lawyers.” “She’s a former prosecutor, a former AG,” Camerota emphasized in reference to Harris. “I mean, frankly, of anyone Kamala Harris should have exercised some caution.” Harris and Booker had yet to comment Thursday morning on the latest news of Smollett being arrested and charged for the incident.