Last week, at a little-known right-wing site called the Clover Chronicle -- the kind of site where a momentary hesitation by Nancy Pelosi during the State of Union address was described as an "MK-Ultra 'Glitch,'" a reference to a Cold War-era CIA mind control program -- a theory was advanced about the Jussie Smollett story: that it was all a 2020 campaign stunt.
HUGE: Kamala Harris Was Allegedly Involved In Jussie Smollett’s “MAGA Country” Hoax
... One person who apparently has knowledge of the situation claims 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris may be involved (link):
“This puppy [Jussie Smollett] is tied to Kamala. There is a chance this will come out.... Would suggest for people to contact their representatives to have Kamala investigated. She is involved and wish I could tell you how I know. Just contact your reps and push for them to look into this. It may help.”
The link is to an anonymous comment at 4chan's /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board.
Our Clover pal continues:
... But, why would Harris help Smollett stage an incident like this?
Oh, that’s right: To make Trump supporters, as well as the POTUS himself, look even more “racist” than the media already portrays them to be.
This would undoubtedly help not only her 2020 campaign, but her fellow Democratic contenders as well.
Updates to the post note that Smollett and Harris both attended a Martin Luther King Day rally in Los Angeles last year (though they don't appear to be together).
Also -- I hope you're sitting down for this -- another message board poster is quoted pointing out that Jussie Smollett's mother's maiden name is Harris. OMIGOD! That's such an unusual name! (Wikipedia says this is true.)
The much-updated post notes that both Kamala Harris and Cory Booker referred to the Smollett incident as "an attempted modern-day lynching," then points out that Harris and Booker are (along with Tim Scott of South Carolina) co-sponsors of a bill to make lynching a federal crime. Clover guy/gal writes:
Was Booker involved too!?
So there's your theory: In order to attack President Trump and publicize their own campaigns, Harris and Booker, or maybe just Harris, conspired to help a TV star commit an easily exposed criminal act that would inevitably be a huge news story once his deception was revealed -- you know, as you do when you're a serious presidential contender.
This idea has spread on the right-wing fringes. Here it is being advanced on Twitter by a self-promoting author/film producer/"media personality" named Tariq Nasheed. Nasheed's tweets were quoted in an American Thinker post by Monica Showalter. The conspiracy theory is being picked up by YouTube vloggers.
But yesterday the theory got a big boost when Rush Limbaugh put it on the air. From the transcript:
RUSH: Dansville, New York. Diana. It’s great to have you here. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. I think that the whole Jussie Smollett incident kind of spider webs out a lot further than we’re seeing on the surface, because there’s no coincidence that Kamala Harris has been pushing her anti-lynching legislation. All of a sudden, you know, out of the blue, out of all the people in the world who supposedly get lynched, it just happens to be her personal friend, Jussie Smollett?
RUSH: Yeah, I’ve got this story coming up. I was going to get to it in the next half hour and I wanted to take your call first to give you credit for creating the transition, because I think you are really on to something. She has made it known how close they are. She’s made it known that Smollett and her and Smollett’s family... All of these uber-left-wing, so-called social justice activists in California… They are all linked. It is an intricately woven web of deceit.
Black Panthers to the New Black Panthers, to the Weather Underground and all of these people. Angela Davis and Kamala Harris, and all these people are all in on it — and she did. She has come out for reparations. I wouldn’t be surprised. We can’t, of course, say for certain here. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that this thing was part of a coordinated effort to assist her campaign, which is destined to do what? Defeat Donald Trump! I mean, you can cross a lot of T’s and dot a lot of I’s in this. I think you’re on to something. What gave the first clue that this might be something connected?
CALLER: The whole thing just smelled really fishy to me. It’s way too coincidental — and, you know, there’s never coincidences with the Democrat Party. It’s all interweaved all the time. We’re always finding out how it’s so much more below the surface.
RUSH: Well, that’s true. In fact, I’m on record as saying there’s no such thing as coincidences with the Clintons, for example, and that’s the Democrat Party subset. That’s fascinating that you have — just out of the blue — put these two together. Where did you find out that Smollett and Kamala Harris have a relationship? Where did you find that out?
CALLER: Well, she was posting about it on the Internet, what close friends they were, and she was singing his praises, and, you know, calling it “a modern-day lynching.”
RUSH: Right, it looked like it was almost orchestrated response, timed well to what then becomes a call for reparations.
CALLER: Yeah, and she was... You know, she’s been pushing this anti-lynching legislation since last year, and I guess it’s gone through the Senate, but not through the House at this point, I guess.
RUSH: Smollett, by the way, just did a documentary on lynching.
CALLER: Really?
RUSH: Yeah. By the way, I didn’t know that lynching was legal in America. Anti-lynching legislation? I thought it was already illegal. It shows you what I know.
And now your grandparents believe that this was A Conspiracy So Vast involving Kamala Harris.
Has Harris said that she has close ties to Smollett? I can't find any evidence of that. In her original Smollett tweet she called him "one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know." That's clearly a well-known person talking about another well-known person who's an acquaintance, not a close friend, much less a family friend.
Smollett did work on an episode of a cable series called America Divided that concerned lynching. Maybe that inspired his hoax. It suggests nothing about Harris (or Booker). That black Americans would be separately focused on racist violence is unimaginable to right-wingers -- if they're talking about lynching at the same time, it must be because they're in cahoots with one another.
You see how the paranoia works. Limbaugh said:
Black Panthers to the New Black Panthers, to the Weather Underground and all of these people. Angela Davis and Kamala Harris, and all these people are all in on it — and she did. She has come out for reparations.
All black people and allies who advocate racial justice, past and present, liberal and radical, are all part of one massive conspiracy that's coming for you, whitey!
I hear it's all explained on Michelle Obama's whitey tape.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
