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Only some candidates revisit views in Smollett case

Only some candidates revisit views in Smollett case
Only some candidates revisit views in Smollett case

Several Democratic presidential candidates spoke up when 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.

Smollett surrendered to face a felony charge of filing a false police report Thursday after police in Chicago said he hired two brothers for the assault. 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.”

At first, several Democratic presidential candidates expressed support for Smollett, who stars on the show “Empire.” Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., both called the reported assault a “modern day lynching,” comments that Republicans are now criticizing them for.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Harris said she was “sad, frustrated and disappointed” by the turn of events. But some other candidates have not publicly revisited their initial views of the case.

President Donald Trump, who initially told reporters the alleged attack was “horrible,” criticized Smollett on Twitter on Thursday for what he called “racist and dangerous comments.”

Here are the responses — or lack thereof — of Democratic presidential contenders on social media.

Updated responses:

Two candidates who made statements in January offered new thoughts Thursday: Harris and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.

On Jan. 29, Harris called Smollett “one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know.”

But in her Facebook post Thursday, she said a false claim to the police “not only diverts resources away from serious investigations but it makes it more difficult for other victims of crime to come forward.” She then pivoted to a discussion of hate crimes, citing FBI statistics showing a 17 percent increase last year.

“Part of the tragedy of this situation is that it distracts from that truth, and has been seized by some who would like to dismiss and downplay the very real problems that we must address,” she said.

On Jan. 29, Gabbard called the described assault “heartbreaking.”

On Thursday, she said in a series of tweets that, if guilty, Smollett “needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law to send a strong message to any potential future ‘hoaxers.'”

No change:

Booker, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand and Joe Biden — who is thought to be considering a presidential run — spoke up Jan. 29 but have not put out new statements.

Booker used the alleged assault to promote an anti-lynching bill. He said this week he would withhold further comment “until all of the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources”; a spokesman did not immediately respond to a message Thursday.

Castro, the former housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, was the only candidate to hedge his statement Jan. 29, prefacing it with “If the reports of Jussie Smollett’s attack last night are true.”

But later in the day he tweeted more definitively about Smollett. “In 2019, he was violently attacked because of his race and sexual orientation,” he wrote. A spokeswoman said Thursday that Castro had no new comment.

Initially, Gillibrand, a New York senator, called the reported assault “a sickening and outrageous attack” and said she was “praying for Jussie and his family.” She told CNN this week she would “wait to find out the facts before I make another statement;” a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a message Thursday.

Biden, the former vice president, said “we are with you, Jussie” after the reported attack. A spokesman did not immediately respond to a message Thursday.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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