Capehart: Even If Smollett Story Is False, There’s Still an ‘Atmosphere of Fear’

[See NewsBusters for more.] Even if the crumbling and increasingly dubious Jussie Smollett hate crime story is false, it still indicates the level of racial “menace” and “fear” in the United States. That was the claim of the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart on Thursday, doubling down on comments from last week. He even cited a survey as the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as proof. As evidence mounted that the actor’s claims are a hoax, Capehart called the story “sad on so many levels.” He insisted, “There is an atmosphere, as I said last week, and it remains true today, an atmosphere of menace and fear that is felt by African-Americans and LGBTQ, the anti-Semitism that we've seen.”