American reverend Jesse Jackson blames the attack on actor Jussie Smollett on President Trump’s rhetoric. He is slowly pushing the United States towards a crisis, Jackson says in a telephone interview with The Guardian . The well-known champion of civil rights calls the abuse a ‘barbarian lynching’,
“The spirit of humiliation and bullying is again out of the bottle. Hatred and violence descend on our land. And it comes from above, “said the clergyman who states that Trump has created a culture that encourages hatred and violence.” Jussie Smollett, an actor in the Empire series, was assaulted by two men in Chicago Tuesday. “This is MAGA country ”, he was thrown at the head, referring to the slogan with which President Donald Trump was campaigning, Make America Great Again (MAGA), Smollett is African American and openly gay.
Trump himself has reacted with disgust to the incident, but Reverend Jackson holds Trump and his movement responsible. He is not the only one who finds that. Actress Ellen Page said Thursday in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the president and his vice-president Mike Pence “try to cause suffering” in communities that already have a hard time.
Smollett has announced on Friday that it is ‘okay’ with him. In a statement he thanks everyone for the support and he emphasizes that it was not an incident. According to the actor, this type of attack occurs daily.