The Daily Signal - #403: Jussie Smollett's Hate Crime Hoax Unravels

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

Jussie Smollett, the now-disgraced actor from "Empire," has turned himself in. Chicago police say he fabricated a hate crime against himself in order to get attention because he was dissatisfied with his salary. In this episode, we recount what happened, the media's careless response, and what Smollett's actions mean for the real victims of hate crimes. Plus: Daniel sits down with Nick Adams, author of "Class Dismissed," who argues that college isn't for everyone—and that that's OK.We also cover the following stories:- Chicago police chief excoriates Jussie Smollett.- Award-winning reporter Lara Logan gets blowback for calling the media on its liberal bias.- LGBT sports group cuts ties with lesbian tennis legend, Martina Navratilova, over disagreement on transgender athletes.- Government report shows the Congressional Budget Office got it wrong on Obamacare—nine years after the fact.- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backs a resolution to block Trump's emergency declaration on the border.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet,iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This Black Friday, you've got a whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you. See your local Nissan dealer or nissan.ca for details. Conditions apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, February 22nd. I'm Jared Stepman, in for Kate Trinko. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, from the moment a student steps foot on a high school campus, he hears a very clear message. If you want to succeed, you have to go to college.

But Nick Adams doesn't buy that. In his new book, Class Dismissed, he says college isn't for everyone and that that's okay. He'll join me in studio to discuss. Plus, we take a deeper dive into the Jesse Smollett controversy. And before we get into our headlines, just a reminder that if you enjoy this podcast, please mention it to your friends and families. Please subscribe and please leave a five-star review on iTunes. We are here to make sure that busy conservatives can get the news, highlights, and in-depth interviews they need every day. And we love your help in spreading that word.

And now on to our top news. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson held a press conference Thursday about the charges being brought against Jesse Smollett, the Empire actor now accused of faking a hate crime. This announcement today recognizes that Empire actor Jesse Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. I'm left hanging my head and asking why. Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? How could someone look at the... hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that

symbol to further his own public profile. How can an individual who's been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false claims? Johnson also criticized the media's mishandling of the story. To make things worse, The accusations within this phony attack received national attention for weeks. Celebrities, news commentators, and even presidential candidates weighed in on something that was choreographed by an actor. First, Smolet attempted to gain attention by sending a false letter that relied on racial, homophobic, and political language. When that didn't work, Smolet paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago's reputation through the mud and the process. And why?

This stunt was orchestrated by Smolet because he was dissatisfied with his salary. So he can conquer the story about being attacked. Now, our city has problems. We know that. We have problems that have affected people from all walks of life. and we know that. But to put the national spotlight on Chicago for something that is both egregious and untrue is simply shameful. I'm also concerned about what this means moving forward for hate crimes.

Now, of course, the Chicago Police Department will continue to investigate all reports of these types of incidents with the same amount of vigor that we did with this one. My concern is that hate crimes would now publicly be met with a level of skepticism that previously didn't happen. That said, Smollett was treated as a victim throughout this investigation until we received evidence that led detectives in another direction. Well, Jesse Smollett is now in custody after turning himself into police Thursday morning. Just hours prior, he had been officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation and charged with, a felony for filing a false police report. His legal team is vowing an aggressive defense.

If convicted, he could face one to three years in prison and have to pay for the cost of the police investigation. Former CBS News correspondent Laura Logan blasted the media on Sean Hannity's show on Thursday night, condemning them for being one-sidedly liberal in putting activism over their role as journalists. She then said that high-profile liberal journalists try to destroy anyone who doesn't go along with the crowd. Well, it's obvious, right? Because you get targeted, and it's the same group of people. they're already starting to target me again now, and I expected it. And, you know, I was joking that I'm braced for fire and fury

because I know they're going to come after me again, and I'm not the only one. I mean, the same people come after you, right? One of them, the Sparrow Project. I mean, this person was tweeting today, you know, Hannity, you know, watch out about Laura Logan stuff, right? And there's more coming. Michael Calderon, who was at the Huffington Post. I can literally give you the script now.

I can tell you who the players are. Joe Hagan, Brian Stelta. I mean, it's the same people all the time, and they're all saying the same things. And they come off to Cheryl Atkinson, they come off to you, they come off to me. I mean, if there are any independent voices out there, if there are any journalists who are not beating the same drum and giving the same talking points, then we pay the price. And if they can't, you know what's interesting, Sean? They can't take down the substance of what you're saying, right? They can't go after the things that matter.

So they smear you personally. They go off to your integrity. they go after your reputation as a person and as a professional, and they'll stop at nothing. So, you know, I'm not the only one, and I'm just like I'm done, right? I'm tired of it. And they don't get to write my story anymore. They don't get to speak for me.

I want to say loudly and clearly to anybody who's listening. I am not owned. Nobody owns me. Well, we reported the other day about how Martina Navratilova, a lesbian tennis star, went public in her opposition to allowing transgender athletes to compete against the opposite biological sex. She said it would be unfair. Well, now, the LGBT movement is dropping her like a hot potato. An LGBT group called Athlete Ally has severed ties with her. The group released a statement, quote,

Martina Navratilova's recent comments on transathletes are transphobic, based on a false understanding of science and data, and perpetuate dangerous myths that lead to. to the ongoing targeting of trans people through discriminatory laws, hateful stereotypes, and disproportionate violence. As an organization dedicated to addressing root causes of homophobia and transphobia in and through sport, we will only affiliate with those committed to the same goal, and not those who further misinformation or discrimination in any way.

Given this, Navratilova has been removed from our advisory board, and as an athlete-ally ambassador, effective immediate. end quote. Man, so much tolerance in the Rainbow Coalition right there. They are slowly purging the members of the coalition. It's getting smaller and smaller. A new government report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reveals that the Congressional Budget Office made some wildly inaccurate projections about the effect of Obamacare's individual mandate. The initial projections predicted that 14 million people would be off insurance if the mandate was repealed. However, this new report shows that only

2.5 million people would go without insurance in 2019 due to the repeal of the mandate's penalties. CBO's numbers had a massive impact on the debate surrounding the passage and possible repeal of Obamacare. Yeah, I remember that. It was CBO. CBO as Democrats were going to CBO to say, look, they're saying our numbers are fine. So let's pass this thing. And then they passed it. They did. It keeps being used as an authority on so many issues. I think, you know, after this, I think there is a very big story. I think some people are going to start to question some of those numbers and how they got to them. And make them public, right? Because they don't make a lot of their calculations are not made public. That's when the criticism is the methodology behind it is

not transparent. And maybe I think there are going to be some people calling for a little more transparency in the future and exactly how we got to these things that impact huge public policy debates. Yeah. Well, House Democrats are getting behind a new resolution that would block President Trump's National Emergency Declaration on the border. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to get behind the measure, saying it would defend the system of checks and balances against the president's assault. That's her word. The bill was expected to be introduced on Friday, and Pelosi said it would go through committee

within 15 days. Of course, it would have to pass the Senate and be signed by President Trump to have any effect. Well, here's an actual concerning story about a possible hate crime. Lieutenant Christopher Paul Hassan, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard and self-described white nationalist was arrested on drug and gun charges last Friday. He has been described as a domestic terrorist by prosecutors and was accused of acquiring a firearms and explosives arsenal for the purpose of targeting prominent Democrats and members of the media. He said in a letter acquired by authorities, quote, I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth. I think

a plague would be the most successful, but how do I acquire the needed? Spanish flu, botulism, anthrax, not sure yet, but we'll find something. Wow. That's crazy stuff. I mean, thank goodness they got the guy before it did anything. Yeah, especially if you've seen pictures of the arsenal acquired, it's quite frightening to think that this man could carry out his purpose to, well, kill every last person on Earth, I guess.

Yeah. Well, up next I'm going to sit down with Nick Adams, who has a new book on why college is not what it's cracked up to be. Do you own an Alexa? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily flash briefing. It's easy to do. Just open up your Alexa app, go to settings, and select Flash Briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signal podcast and add it to your Flash briefing so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't covering.

Well, the expectation for kids after they graduate from high school is to go to college, get a degree, and then get a nice high-paying job, but it doesn't work exactly that way for everybody, and we now have a huge student loan crisis, student debt crisis. Here to discuss this and more is Nick Adams. He's author of the new book, Class Dismissed, Why College Isn't The Answer. Nick, thank you for joining us in studio. Daniel, it's a real pleasure. So, Nick, tell us just the basic concept of your book.

You're arguing that the four-year traditional college degree, our culture sees as the standard of being educated and successful, is not a one-size-fits-all. Daniel, that's exactly right. Look, college is not for everyone. That's the reality. And I say that as somebody that did go to college. I got two degrees. I had a great time.

I wanted to go to college. And I was, for one, of a better term, and not to, you know, pump my chest up, but I was college material. But I think the reality is that we've got far too many people going to college, getting college degrees, that really shouldn't be going to college. And I think that there are lots of different options. Unfortunately, we as a society, we as a culture, have been sold this big, huge, mammoth, gargantuan, gigantic lie that unless you go to college,

you're not going to be successful, that if you don't go to college, you won't have fulfilled your potential. You won't be able to achieve the American dream. Now, nothing could be further from the truth. That's absolute nonsense. And that's something that has been sold to us by educational elites, primarily from Ivy League schools, that have sold us their product. And their product is four years of a college degree. Now, look, Daniel, if you want to be a lawyer or a doctor, college is indispensable. You've got to go. But the reality is we have far too many people going to college to study land rights

for gay, indigenous whales. And they're completely useless with no practice. practical application in the real world whatsoever. And I think it's really important for each person, each young person, beginning their life to make a thoroughly researched decision because there are lots of different paths. Yeah. So I think we often hear only about the college aspect, but tell us about what are some other options that you think are really choices that make more sense for some folks. It's a great question. Look, I think we need more electricians and plumbers and machinists and carpenters and welders, you know, every time I've never met an electrician or a

plumber short of a dollar. And every time there's something wrong at home and you call out a plumber, you're going to be paying a lot of money because they've really got next to no competition. There is a shortage of those kinds of tradespeople. And so I think that that's definitely something that people should look at. Going and getting an apprenticeship, learning a skill, a technical skill, going to a trade school, those are options that I think are going to give you lots of money, going to allow you to achieve what you want to achieve. There are some really good reasons, Daniel, that we do not want our children going to college unless they are tailor-made for it. This is the argument I make in class dismissed, why college isn't the answer. That's the name of the

book. Number one, we want them to avoid the almost inevitable liberal indoctuble liberal indoctuary. that awaits them on any college campus. Number two, we don't want them graduating up to their eyeballs settled in debt. As you very correctly point out, student loan debt is at an epidemic high, more than $1.3 trillion. Number three, we want to virtually guarantee them a job. How tragic it is when someone goes and does a four-year college degree and then can't find work. And on top of that, they've got this massive debt that's eliminated all of their flexibility. And fourth and most importantly, I think, and most attractive of all, at least to me, and this is the point I make over and over again in class dismissed,

is we want to give the maximum amount of Americans to one day have the chance to do the most American thing of all. Start their own business. Create wealth, achieve the American dream, employ people. And that's what you can do. If you go, you want to go and learn a trade, you go and do your apprenticeship, You spend a few years making sure that you're really good at it. And you say, you know what? I don't have to work for that guy.

Work for myself. Set up my own operation. And that right there, I think, is the American spirit of entrepreneurship, greatness, as opposed to mediocrity. It's really, so much of it just seems like common sense. But the idea being pushed now is, no, no, no, we need everyone to keep going to college, keep getting those degrees that aren't as useful, but just make the government pay for all of it now. So free college for everyone. Yeah, well, that's what we're hearing, particularly now from some front runners for the Democratic nomination,

free college for everyone. And look, it's a simple supply and demand. I mean, it's just simple economics when you really think about it. People that have got a college degree should really want what I'm saying. Because if everyone's got a college degree, all of a sudden the college degree isn't that valuable. That's true, yeah. You know, and so then you've got to go and get an advanced degree, and you've got to go to stand out from the crowd.

So really, those people that, you know, are academics and who think that they're in love with education, that might, their first instinct might be to kind of push back against what I'm saying, really, they'd be the beneficiaries of it. Because if we only have the best of the best going to college, which I think is the way it should be, number one, that makes college degree super valuable and respected. And number two, I think there are so many other ways to achieve a fulfilling and satisfactory

life. And in fact, Daniel, study after study shows unequivocally that people in blue-collar jobs are more satisfied and happier than high-powered lawyers or doctors. I mean, just take out the stress for a second. Right. You know, this expectation that everyone has to go, to college, it's pretty new, right? I mean, when I think of my own grandparents, you know, both of my grandfathers, they were the first in their line, family line ever to go to college,

and it was just a community college, you know, after the Korean War. And it's pretty recent. So this seems, it smells a bit like maybe the colleges are trying to sell people on this just to get more money. Absolutely. It's a wonderful observation. Look, it certainly has intensified in the last couple of decades. And there's a... There's a lot of reasons for that. I think that there are a lot of immigrant communities within the United States where the idea is that each successive generation should be more successful than the last. And as I was saying, Daniel, the educational elites have very cleverly and masterfully linked

success to a college education. And so the idea is that, you know, well, my father didn't go to college or my grandfather they didn't go to college, so I need to go to college. And that's, so a lot of those motivations, I think, are not really the right way, because like I say, college is not for everyone. What we need is people to really sit down, take a long, hard look at themselves, what they're good at, and what their options are. And look, if you go out and, I mean, I graduated high school. There are guys that dropped out a couple of years before me, and they're now, onto buying their third or fourth home.

I mean, they have a fleet of trucks as plum. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg dropped out, right? Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and going back a long time, Abraham Lincoln. I mean, Lincoln had no elementary school education, no middle school education, no high school education, no college, everything he learned was self-taught. And in fact, if you go back and you have a look at some of these American original, some of these really amazing American individuals whose strides in human accomplishments benefit us still today, those guys didn't go to college. My message that I have very prominently in class dismissed is when you have a look

at American history, the central theme seems to be that grit determination, overcoming adversity, recovering from failure, that is far more powerful and far more determining of success than whether or not you went to college. Colonel Sanders had his recipe for fried chicken rejected 1,09 times before he got to start-up KFC. Abraham Lincoln lost 14 elections on the trot. Walt Disney went bankrupt twice, almost three times. Same story with Henry Ford. Thomas Edison had more than a thousand cracks at the light bulb.

P.J. Barnum had his first two circuses fail. I mean, again and again, even, you know, President of the United States, States being bankrupt twice officially. You know, so I mean, this is this is a country of unlimited opportunities, unlimited chances. If you're prepared to put in the work and get up off the ground, as life will inevitably knock you on the canvas several times. You know, last question for you.

It seems like so much of the solution is just thinking about it differently and making different choices as someone who's purchasing an education. Is there anything from the public policy standpoint that government should be doing to make these options more accessible? Yeah, look, it's a great question, Daniel. Look, the President has, President Trump has many times, I think, really made a very, made lots of commentary that this is the way that we need to go, that apprenticeships are something that we need to support and pour money into.

So I think that we do. And, you know, I'm an American exceptionalist. I mean, I think that this is the greatest country in the world, hands down. But I think that, you know, there are probably a couple of other places that do the apprentice stuff really well that we can learn from. Germany being the, you know, the classic example. And when you research this topic, this area, like I had to for class dismissed, you say, I mean, the Germans who are very, it's a different society. It's much more regimented, much less free. But part of that regimen is that practically for any job, whether you're going to work at the post office,

or the bank, you go in and you do it a two-year apprenticeship that makes you perfect for that job, that particular profession. So look, I think there is something that we can learn, that we can look at. I, you know, I just think that entrepreneurship and trade schools is something that public policy should really support as opposed to just a blanket, go to college, more education is the answer. You know, we've heard more education for a long time, and I haven't seen much improvement. Well, the book is called Class Dismissed, Why College Isn't the Answer. Nick, thanks for joining us and chatting about it. Daniel, it's been a privilege. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? Then subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a podcast breaking down the

cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. All right, well, this Jesse Smollett story. It looks like it's coming to an end, but it's been just a remarkable kind of a roller coaster ride and a sad one at that. To discuss the issue we're bringing in one of our producers, the Leah Rampersad, thanks for being back in the studio with us. Thanks for having me. But first, we're going to throw this to Jared because, Jared, you did write an article about the Jesse Smollett controversy. What's your main take from this whole event? I think there are really multiple major issues here. I mean, first of all, the hoax itself, it's quite incredible that this, this, this

actor who in many ways is very privileged. This is a guy who is a celebrity. He makes millions of dollars. He has wealth and status and yet felt compelled to, I guess, advance his career to create this incredible hoax and make these. The description of the crime was quite horrible. And then go, of course, on into media and malign large numbers of Americans and condemn them for their political views that this all fell apart. I think that in itself, I think is. somewhat telling, you know, that he thought that this would bring more attention, that he thought this would boost his career. I mean, even the police now reporting that he did this so he would get a salary increase for his role in the show. I mean, that's a pretty incredible thing. And,

you know, I think that now, of course, it turns to the issue of the hate crime issue in general, because this is a guy who has basically been a fraud. I mean, we hear a lot of these numbers about rising hate crime in America and things like this. And here we have this very high profile case of a guy who made this stuff from the beginning. So a lot of the number of the beginning. of Americans, when they hear these things, they start to become skeptical because, of course, you have so many, you know, hot takes from a lot of media and personalities and politicians who jump aboard on these things and then use it as a tool bludgeon against political foes. Well, and that was a huge part of this story that you noted in your article was that the media

jumped on it. And obviously, when the reports came out, I mean, we covered it here at the Daily Signal on the podcast just because, you know, you cover it as it comes out. But a lot of folks, I think it's probably fair to say went well beyond that. I remember Brooke Baldwin lamenting on CNN, this is America in 2019, like with that voice of just, you know, she could not believe this. So that is a big part of the story, how the media really was hoodwinked. Yeah, they were hoodwinked. And I do like to give some credit because I want to give credit to the CBS local that actually did the job of real journalists and working with the police department and trying to find the truth about the story. I mean, there's so many people, even the message, even now, who say the truth is less important than the narrative.

And I think that for a lot of Americans, that goes against reality. I mean, that's a dangerous thing when the narrative matters more than truth. I mean, you know, we want to get to the heart of this. Is it true that, you know, this horrible crime has taken place? I mean, that somebody, you know, beat this man up and yelled racist and homophobic things to him. I mean, it's good that the story, you know, was blown up, that we had got to the truth, that it really didn't happen, that it was a hoax. I mean, I guess you could say that's a good thing. And I'm glad there were people who were there doing that.

but it's a shameful thing. I mean, now, you know, when we hear these stories, I think we're now going to be a lot more skeptical as a society when we hear them. Well, Thalia, your main thoughts on all of this. When I first heard this story, I was really upset. I think I was kind of following the news as it was coming out. And when I first heard it, I was like, this is a horrible crime. I was really interested to know how it was going to play out in the courts

and what was going to come of it. And then as the news and the facts started unfurably, unfolding, it almost became sort of comical to me. And now I can't look away. Now I have to know what's going to happen. And there were a lot of different comical aspects to it in the sense of the magazine clippings, to the amount of money he paid them to the fact that they were, I read they were extras on the show, Empire, and that they were two Nigerian men and just all of these different facts swirling around and coming together in an interesting way we never saw coming from the beginning. I then turn to the emotion of almost being upset because now this actor, Jesse Smollett,

has cried Wolf on such a serious topic. All of these people who have gone through this, that maybe we've never even heard their case, now this is their representation of this crime. The first reaction people are going to have is not, oh, what a horrible crime, but oh, are they doing the same thing that Jesse Smollett did? Yeah, exactly. And that, that to me is extremely upsetting.

And yeah, I'm still in shock. I still kind of can't look away. His mugshot is now on every news organization's channel and website. And you never saw this coming. And I'm interested to see his side of things. What are his thought processes now? Is he embarrassed by all of this? Is he still?

Is he going to make a public comment like admitting everything? Exactly, because he had the audacity to go on GMA and play this out in a full scale interview. And with a full range of emotions, which you really truly want to. it to believe him. So now it's what happens from here. Where do we go now? Well, we've seen, and we've seen other scandals play out recently in Hollywood with like Kevin Spacey, a lot of Me Too examples of people just really being kind of blacklisted in a sense in Hollywood. And we've seen Empire now dropping him. I think they're scripting, trying to script away, script him out of the story, out of the show. But do you think he's going to get the Kevin

Spacey treatment. Obviously, if he goes to jail, that'll just kind of happen while he's in jail, but in the longer run. Right. And I think, yeah, this sets a precedent. Like, how is Hollywood going to react to this? Is it going to be a Kevin Spacey treatment? I'm almost skeptical to think that it will be. I think you might see the wave turn in the sense that they're going to swoop it under the rug and maybe he'll go away for a few years. And then maybe all of a sudden he might pop back up again in Hollywood and they'll act like nothing happened. But, I mean, we just kind of have to wait and see. Yeah, I do wonder if he's going to turn and say, well, you know, I was emotionally disturbed and, you know, if he's going to try to maybe try to turn himself

into a victim and all this, it's really hard to say how he's going to react. But it is kind of amazing how definitely he kind of manipulated the media into peddling his story and how incompetently he conducted the actual crime. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And the way he couldn't get caught. And the way he invoked his identity as kind of the core of his argument, you know, you know, he invoked being black and being gay as kind of the central, like, sympathy argument. And I'm really curious how those groups are going to come out and respond to this because I think, you know, when Kevin Spacey tried to defend himself on Twitter, his statement was he came out as gay. And then it's like, because the accusation was that he had had inappropriate sexual relations with a teenage man, boy. and so he comes out as gay.

And the gay community actor is like, what are you doing? How is that a defense for what you did? So I'm curious if they and maybe the black community will have something similar to say because they are now put at risk by his behavior, which is unfair. And that's why I like that the police superintendent's statements basically on this as he exploited the racism and things like this for his own personal agenda and how shameful that is. This is really a bad moment for Chicago and a bad

moment for this man and how many people he's hurt and harmed through these actions. You know, wasting police resources, making something into a national story that should not have been a really kind of shameful situation that, again, damages those who are victims of real crimes. And certainly

in a place like a Chicago, there are a lot of victims of real crimes who, you know, you can imagine the police need to devote resources to that they had to instead pay attention to this phony story that was hooked up. Well, the police has set bail, I think, at like $100,000, and he could face one to three years in prison based on how everything shakes out, but we'll follow it and we'll especially watch out for his statements and see how he responds to everything turning on him.

Thalia and Jared, thank you both chiming in on this very important story. Always love being on. And thank you for listening to The Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us any feedback, and be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. We'll see you again on Monday. You've been listening to The Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis,

sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.