President Donald Trump fired up a Republican crowd by taunting Empire actor Jussie Smollett.
During a speech Tuesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump taunted Smollett who alleged he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men who yelled “This is MAGA Country.”
Trump used the MAGA line to ridicule Smollett.
“How about the guy from Chicago? The actor that nobody ever heard of,” Trump said as people in the crowd chuckled. “He said he got taken out by ‘MAGA country.’ I said, ‘What the hell was that?’ I guess that’s a hate crime, right?”
Trump tries out the words "MAGA Country," which reminds him of Jussie Smollett: "How about the guy from Chicago? The actor nobody ever heard of. I said, 'who the hell is that?'" pic.twitter.com/CQcyZstZaJ
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) April 3, 2019
On March 26, Chicago prosecutors dropped all 16 felony charges against Smollett for allegedly lying to police about the attack. Shortly after the case was dismissed, the actor told reporters he had been “truthful and consistent on every single level since day one.”
Clearly steamed about the outcome of the case, Trump took to Twitter last week to call the decision “outrageous,” and to say that the FBI and Department of Justice would “review” the matter.
Read More: Tracy Morgan Rips Jussie Smollett, Defends Chris Rock’s NAACP Joke
POTUS isn’t the only politician with questions about the case.
Chicago’s new mayor-elect, Lori Lightfoot, has called on Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office to explain why the case was dismissed.
“The State’s Attorney’s office here, which made the decision unilaterally to drop the charges has to give a much more fulsome explanation,” Lightfoot said Wednesday during an interview on MSNBC. “We cannot create the perception that if you’re rich or famous or both that you got one set of justice, and for everybody else it’s something much harsher. That won’t do and we need to make sure that we have a criminal justice system that has integrity.”
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, was elected Tuesday and will become the first African-American woman and the first openly gay female to serve as Chicago’s mayor. She’ll be sworn in on May 20, and replaces Rahm Emanuel, who announced in September he would not seek a third term.
