“This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.” That was U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, California Democrat, responding to the news that on Jan. 29, 2019 in Chicago, two men in MAGA hats, screaming racial slurs, tied a rope around the neck of Jussie Smollett and doused the actor with chemicals. 

“The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching,” added Sen. Cory Booker, who urged lawmakers to support the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, a measure also supported by Harris that made lynching a federal hate crime. According to coincidence theory, there was no connection between the legislation and the “attempted modern day lynching” of Smollett, which turned out to be a hoax.

The aspiring lynchers were not white guys, as Smollett contended, but Ola and Abimbola Osundairo, brothers from Nigeria who worked as extras on the set of Empire, a production in which Smollett appeared. The actor cut them a check for $3500 to masquerade as MAGA muggers. When NBA great Charles Barkley got the news, he told the nation, “do not commit crimes with checks,” but Democrats and their media allies weren’t laughing.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi called it a “racist, homophobic attack.” On CNN, Van Jones hailed Smollett as a “Jackie Robinson” type. Keith Boykins intoned that, “however implausible it seems on its face, unfortunately we live in a world now where these things are even possible.” For her part, Kamala Harris was “sad, frustrated and disappointed,” mostly likely because the attack turned out to be fake, but the senator contended that hate crimes were still on the rise.

“Part of the tragedy of this situation is that it distracts from that truth, and has been seized by some who would like to dismiss and downplay the very real problems that we must address,” Harris told reporters. “We should not allow that. I will always condemn racism and homophobia. We must always confront hate direct, and we must always seek justice.” Given her record as California attorney general, the people have cause to wonder.

On Dec. 2, 2015, at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik gunned down Robert Adams, Isaac Amianos, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman, Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman, Damien Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and Michael Wetzel. In a statement two weeks later, Attorney General Harris mentioned “those who lost their lives,” but failed to name a single victim or condemn the terrorists.

In a statement one year later, Harris recalled “those who lost their lives and the loved ones they left behind,” but failed to name or condemn the two Muslim extremists who had murdered them, and again the attorney general named not a single victim. The dead and wounded included blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and immigrants but Harris failed to call the mass murder a hate crime or even gun violence.

This lapse proved no obstacle for Harris’s move to the U.S. Senate, where she promoted the lynching measure. Her 2020 campaign for president went nowhere, but Joe Biden picked Harris as his running mate and the Democratic duo formed the “Biden-Harris administration.” For the vice president, the 20^th anniversary of 9/11 was something of a repeat performance. On Sept. 11, 2021, Kamala Harris spoke at a memorial for the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93, who forced down the airliner in Pennsylvania before the terrorists could crash it into the Capitol Building or White House.

“We are joined today, of course, by the family and friends of the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93,” Harris said. “And we stand today with all those who lost someone on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of the attacks.” In the style of San Bernardino, Harris named not a single passenger or crew member. The vice president claimed to stand with those who “lost someone,” but offered no explanation of how they were “lost.” That loss came in the aftermath of “the attacks,” but Harris provided no details about the attackers, their motive, and how many they killed. Of the nearly 3,000 victims, Harris failed to name a single one, and Joe Biden’s vice president quickly changed the subject.

“On the days that followed September 11^th, 2001,” Harris said. “we were all reminded that unity is possible in America. We were reminded also that unity is imperative in America.  It is essential to our shared prosperity, to our national security, and to our standing in the world. And by unity, I don’t mean uniformity. We had differences of opinion in 2001 as we do in 2021. And I believe that in America, our diversity is our strength.” Nothing about confronting hate and seeking justice, as in the wake of Jussie Smollett’s fakery.

In March of 2022,  Judge James Linn sentenced Smollett to 150 days in prison, 30 months felony probation, plus a fine of $25,000 and $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago. After the sentencing, Kamala Harris’s post about the “modern day lynching” remained online. So did a Jan. 2019 post from Joe Biden stating, “what happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie.”

Hate crime fakery has been documented in Crying Wolf: Hate Crime Hoaxes in America by Laird Wilcox and Wilfred Reilly’s Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War. The Smollett case recalls D. Keith Mano’s novel Take Five, in which manqué cineaste Simon Lynxx pays two black friends to mug elderly mogul Hermann Wolff so Lynxx can rescue him and obtain cash for his new film. Take Five was published in 1982, the year Jussie Smollett was born. Mano, who passed away in 2016, was well ahead of his time.