Robin Roberts reacts to Jussie Smollett's arrest, a week after their 'GMA' interview
A week after "Good Morning America" aired Robin Roberts' exclusive interview with an emotional Jussie Smollett, she reacted to news police believe the star staged the Jan. 29 attack.
During Thursday's episode, Roberts said this story "touches all the buttons."
By the time the morning show aired, Smollett had been arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct by filing a false police report.
"It’s a setback for race relations, homophobia, MAGA supporters – the fingers were pointed at them," she said. "I cannot think of another case where there's this anger on so many sides, and you can understand why there would be."
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The journalist addressed last week's interview Monday, as The Daily Caller points out.
“We have to remember, at that time, on Tuesday, police officers were saying that his account was consistent, it was credible, and that he was being cooperative," she said. "Now this was all before the interview aired on Thursday, and then we found out about the brothers (Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, who told police Smollett paid them to help him stage the attack)."
In his sit-down with Roberts which aired Feb. 14, Smollett addressed those who doubted his story about the incident.
"It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would’ve supported me a lot more, and that says a lot about the place that we are in our country right now,” he said at the time.
The prospect of his attackers not being brought to justice brought Smollett to tears during his chat with Roberts.
“I was talking to a friend and I said, ‘I just want them to find them.’ And she said, ‘Sweetie, they’re not going to find them,’" he said. "That just made me so angry because (that means) I’m just gonna be left here with this?
“They get to go free and go about their life and possibly attack someone else, and I’m here, left with the aftermath of this bull? That not cool to me, that’s not OK.
"So, I understand how difficult it will be to find them,but we gotta. I still want to believe, with everything that has happened, that there’s something called justice.”
After "GMA" aired Thursday, prosecutors at his bond hearing accused the 36-year-old of staging the attack so he would appear to be the victim of a hate crime.
Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. set Smollett’s bond at $100,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport. No plea was entered and the actor said little other than giving his name. Smollett posted bond late Thursday afternoon and walked out of the Cook County Jail without making comment to a phalanx of reporters.
Smollett's defense team said in a statement: "Today we witnessed an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system. The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett and notably, on the eve of a Mayoral election. Mr. Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing."
Contributing: Aamer Madhani
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Robin Roberts reacts to Jussie Smollett's arrest, a week after their 'GMA' interview
