In a tweet from January 29, 2019, Biden wrote, "What happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie."
Biden sent his tweet only hours after Smollet, who identifies as an actor, director, writer, and producer, called the police to his Chicago hotel and claimed that he'd been the victim of a hate crime.
At the time, Smollett claimed he was assaulted in the middle of the night in the Democrat-controlled city of Chicago by two white men after he bought a Subway sandwich. Smollet claimed his caucasian attackers yelled that inner-city Chicago was "MAGA Country" along with racist and homophobic slurs. They attacked him, he said, and then poured bleach on him and wrapped a noose around his neck.
After noticing discrepancies, police soon deduced the "attackers" were two Nigerian brothers Smollet knew from the gym and whom he paid $3,500 in the form of a personal check to help in the hoax.
In their interview with Fox, the brothers took the outlet to the scene of the hoax and re-enacted their actions from that night.
Abel Osundairo said, "This is where we waited for Jesse to come before we attacked him. So we got here with 10 minutes to spare, and we had to plan our escape routes, survey the land. His building is actually right here, right above the stairs."
Ola and Abel Osudairo both said they had to get there at 2 am and not bring any phones.
Smollett arrived 4 minutes late and the two brothers began their fake attack and recounted for Fox what they did, including shouting the racial and homophobic epithets, calling them, "the famous slurs."
"And we started tussling, moving, moving around, and then I threw him to the ground. He wanted it to look like he fought back. That was very important for him," Abel Osudairo said, later explaining that the scratch on Smollett's face came from giving the actor a "noogie."
Smollett was found guilty of five out of six counts of disorderly conduct related to lying to the police in December 2021 and on March 1, attorneys for Smollett filed an appeal in hopes of keeping Smollett from serving the remaining portion of his 150-day jail sentence.
Smollett's hoax was accepted by many beyond Biden, "@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," wrote Kamala Harris on January 29.
Many political figures as well as those in establishment media, including CNN and the New York Times, also fell for the hoax.
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