This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the latest spin for why liberals, including some Democratic presidential candidates, fell so hard and fast for actor Jussie Smollett’s claim he was targeted in Chicago by racists and Trump supporters.

In an appearance on MSNBC, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart blamed President Trump. He said that Trump “actually stokes the atmosphere of menace and insecurity that millions of Americans feel across this country.”





He added that Trump and his supporters “are using the Jussie Smollett situation to rhetorically bash people who are afraid for their own existence and their own lives,” which he called “really despicable.”

From the Saturday AM Joy on MSNBC, after a clip of Trump on January 31, calling the alleged attack “horrible”:

“The reason why so many people were so quick to believe Jussie Smollett and what he said and his version of events before they all unraveled was because that man [Trump] who you just played feeds into and actually stokes the atmosphere of menace and insecurity that millions of Americans feel across this country, whether they are people of color, LGBTQ, trans people, immigrants, Dreamers. You just go down the list.

“There are people in this country who every day feel that their very existence – their own security is at stake. And so, you know, the president’s Super-PAC, right-wingers, far right conservatives who are using the Jussie Smollett situation to rhetorically bash people who are afraid for their own existence and their own lives, you know, is really despicable.”

Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our weekly pick: “Not much self-reflection from Capehart, who’s more interested in blaming his own biased perception of his political opponents for his own gullibility than examining why he feels so victimized by those on the right. Buying into Smollett’s story, which had many red flags, was bad enough. "