Jussie Smollett, who plays Jamal Lyon on “Empire,” unloaded his feelings about President Donald Trump’s responses to recent events in an interview with SiriusXM Progress Radio.
The out actor began by saying he viewed the “take a knee” NFL protests started by Colin Kaepernick to be a right as an American citizen.
“He’s a pig, a racist, a horrible human being,” Smollett says. “To me Colin Kaepernick is very patriotic. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing as a citizen of this country. If anything, sadly, the person who was falsely elected to be president of the United States is actually the least patriotic person that we’ve seen in a long time.”
Smollett went on that he didn’t understand Trump’s different responses to the Charlottesville riots and the NFL protests.
“What I’m very confused about is that, freedom of speech, if you’re a white supremacist, if you’re a hateful asshole, then suddenly it’s like, ‘but he’s a fine guy. But when it comes to a man simply kneeling for a song ― that’s a racist song to begin with ― suddenly that’s unpatriotic. That doesn’t make sense when you say it out loud,” Smollett added.
He continued that his advice is to come together and just keep fighting.
“It’s a cliché but the power of the people is stronger than the people in power,” Smollett says. “And we are in power. Look at the conversation… Of course, it’s hard, but you must remember: We’re fighting the same things our parents and our grandparents and our great grandparents were fighting against. But let us not forget that we have it better the our parents, our grandparents and our great grandparents had it. Let’s utilize what we have to come together. And I think that is what we’re seeing.”
Listen to the interview below.
“if everybody came together & fought against this, actually could win” @JussieSmollett of @EmpireFOX on #TheResistance via @MSignorile Show pic.twitter.com/lEjezx4lYs
— SiriusXM Progress (@SXMProgress) September 25, 2017
