Ana Navarro Says Alleged Smollett Hate Crime Hoax Was “Believable”

The View co-hosts don’t seem thrilled with Jussie Smollett’s recent conviction for so many reasons. On December 9, the “Empire” actor was convicted on five out of six charges related to a fake hate crime he staged against himself in 2019. 

Ana Navarro said his original account was “believable” because of other incidents that occur in the world. Previously, Navarro slammed Smollett on Twitter for this exact reason, saying that his hoax would discourage real victims from coming forward. 

During the December 10 episode of “The View,” Navarro said, “The big message that should come for everybody out of this is that it should not deter people who are the victims of real hate crimes from reporting it.” 

Navarro also disagrees with Smollett still maintaining his innocence after a mountain of evidence to the contrary. The CNN contributor said it would “serve him well to accept responsibility,” and said he should pay back the city of Chicago for all the time they wasted on his staged crime. She also called on the “Empire” actor to “show a little humility and remorse.”

“The View” hosts discussed how the hoax would ultimately undermine real accusations of sexual assault and hate crimes, but then their conversation took an interesting turn — co-host Sunny Hostin cautioned against jumping to the defense of someone before knowing all the details.

“When you approach anything that happens, you need to bring the information in… you need to respond, not react,” Hostin said. “Everyone across the boards reacted very quickly and very impulsively on Twitter. I just think it’s a reminder that you can’t dial that back in, so if a narrative goes out and you endorse it…”

Guest star Laverne Cox, an LGBT activist, admitted that Smollett must have staged the attack but blamed his actions on a possible drug addiction. “I still don’t want to believe this,” the “Orange is the New Black” alum said. “In his own testimony, he said that he, that there was drugs involved. I don’t have any evidence that he is addicted to drugs, but we know that when drugs are involved, people don’t always make the best decisions.”

But then Navarro insisted that the Left defending Smollett on Twitter even before they knew details of the case was similar to prominent Republicans posing for photos with Josh Duggar, who was just convicted on child pornography charges this week. 

“I saw yesterday a lot of reaction, you know, on that point, on that, on Twitter of people wanting to own the liberals who had reacted in support of Jussie Smollett. Well yesterday, also, Josh Duggar got convicted, found guilty of child pornography. And guess what? There are pictures all over, all online, of him with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee.”

She continued, “It’s not, you know, Kamala Harris’s fault or Joe Biden’s fault or Cory Booker’s fault or anybody’s fault that their natural reaction was to empathize with somebody who we all at first thought was a victim of a hate crime.”

“It’s Twitter’s fault!” Joy Behar declared. 

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